


Capital Interest

by imawarlock



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Anal Sex, Business Rivals, Hate Sex, Levi’s filthy mouth, M/M, Misunderstandings, Rivalry
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-26
Updated: 2019-11-26
Packaged: 2020-05-20 07:38:22
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 74,440
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19372213
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imawarlock/pseuds/imawarlock
Summary: Levi, the unhappy Vice President of Ackerman Securities, LLC., considers their hated business rival Erwin Smith to be his mother’s problem. He doesn’t know him, he’s never seen him, and the last thing he ever wants to do is fucking talk to him. He’s cost their company hundreds of thousands of dollars and is surely an unscrupulous bastard, and so the unnamed handsome blonde man that Levi had slept with certainly can’t be him, right?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! Long time no see ;) I’m uploading this as part 1 of this fic, with part 2 and however many others to follow AT SOME POINT. also, this is the longest fic I’ve ever written in present tense so sorry for any glaring tense errors. I realized it was a Mistake about halfway through but then it was too late to change it :| anyway, I hope you enjoy and thanks for reading.

_  “Are you all prepared for the fundraiser tonight, Levi?” _

Hearing the question from his mother, Levi holds back a sigh, feeling immensely grateful that he’s talking to her over the phone so she can’t see the way he rolls his eyes. “Sure.”

_ “Sure? What does that mean? Yes, or no?” _

_ “Yes.” _ He replies, clenching his jaw because...well, yes, technically he  _ is  _ ready for the banquet — he had just picked up his tuxedo from the dry cleaners, in fact — but the last fucking thing he wants to do is actually go. 

However, he knows he has no choice. This is something he has to do for his mother, or rather, their family security business, although really it’s all the same damn thing. She’s the CEO and he’s her son, and it was decided long ago that he would inherit her position once she retires, probably from the moment he was fucking born. Thankfully, his childhood had managed to be somewhat normal despite that, but three years ago, once he’d turned 30, she’d decided she’d wanted to pass it on to him by the time he’s 35, and has been grooming and training him for the job ever since. 

_ “Good. I know I’m out of town, but I think you can start attending these events on my behalf from now on, so this will give you an idea of what to expect without me.”  _ Kuchel says then, either ignoring — or not picking up on — his bored tone. 

It’s more likely that it’s the latter, he thinks, because although he hates this,  _ all _ of it, the fucking responsibilities and the tedious office work with long hours and the awful, unbearable events, he has gotten very good at hiding it because he doesn’t want to disappoint her. She has no idea that he’s miserable and the last thing he wants is her job, but he doesn’t see an out — especially since they’ve been losing money steadily for the past five years. If it keeps up, he knows, they’ll be bankrupt before long, and he’s pretty sure Kuchel has put her last hopes for the business to be saved squarely on  _ his  _ reluctant shoulders. Unfortunately, there’s no one else she can look to either because all of his other relatives are either too young or too stupid to be able to do the job, and since his mother wants it to stay in the family, there’s just no other Ackerman who can do it right then but him. 

“Okay, mom.” He replies with that in mind, speaking in a blank tone while staring idly out the window. 

He’s stuck in his office, naturally, but the sun is out. The sky is blue and it’s a beautiful day, and although it’s only 2:00 PM, he hopes that she’ll leave him alone soon so that he can finish his work, leave early, and get the hell out of there. She’s gone so she won’t know, he thinks, and considering that it’s Friday and he’s going to be spending his entire evening at some shitty, stuffy fundraiser, he’d like to have a moment to relax before he has to get all dressed up.

_ “You remember what I told you about the funds, right?” _ Kuchel drones on, though, much to his dismay. 

“Yeah.” He says, mentally groaning because yes,  _ of course _ he remembers, as she had discussed this for an hour with him last week, sent him a very lengthy email the day before, and reminded him once that very morning over the phone. “We’re giving 15.5% annually this year, down from 17% last year. This is a large fundraiser, so 7% of that is appropriate. However, it’s alright to go up to 9% if the amount is too low in comparison to everyone else. We need business, so it’s important to look good.”

Levi recites the main points from the conversations he’s had with his mother blankly, trying to ignore how his conscious objects to the uncaring, heartless way in which he’s been instructed to proceed. It’s a fundraiser for fuck’s sake, he thinks, a goddamn charity event, and he will have to decide what amount to donate based on corporate bullshit rather than anything else. Deep down, he hates that too, and he wonders if it’s something he’ll ever get over. His mother has sure mastered not thinking about things like that, he knows, although that isn’t to say she doesn’t feel what he does. She sympathizes with him, but she’s been running their business for 40 years, and has become a pro at ‘doing what needs to be done’ — something she has doubled down on since they’d started bleeding money. 

Objectively, he supposes he gets it. However, he just isn’t sure shit like that will ever sit right with him, perhaps because he just does not fucking care about Ackerman Securities, LLC. as much as his mother does. She’d do anything to save the company, he knows, because it’s basically her  _ other _ baby, but Levi honestly just wishes she’d sell it. That would be ideal to him because it would free him from this hellish responsibility that is going to consume the rest of his entire life, but she’s dead set against the idea, although it’s not like they haven’t had offers. No, they’ve had several, and Levi knows of one person who is actually very, very interested in purchasing their company, but the problem is...well, that his mother hates him.

_ “Right, but don’t forget, if that— _

“I know, mom.” Levi interrupts, biting back a sigh. “‘If that smug asshole ratfucker Erwin Smith tries to make us look bad, it’s alright to go up to 11%.’”

Levi recites that from memory too in an even blanker tone, but makes sure to include the colorful language his mother had used to describe her corporate archenemy, Erwin Smith — not that it’s anything new. No, Kuchel despises the man so much that she always speaks about him like that, often appearing to have an intense, raging fury behind her eyes when she does so that honestly sometimes scares the shit out of him, as it reminds him of when he’d been a kid and he’d done something to  _ really _ piss her off. Suddenly he’ll be afraid out of nowhere that he’s about to be grounded, but of course, it’s never directed at him. It’s directed at Erwin Smith, President and CEO of Smith Industries, Inc. — a huge company that is the bane of Kuchel’s fucking existence. 

It used to be smaller in size, Levi knows, comparable to theirs, but only when it was run by Erwin’s father, who founded it. Apparently, he died around 10 years ago and Erwin took over, and the business basically exploded in size, growing into a multi-million dollar corporation seemingly overnight, and eventually becoming the reason that Ackerman Securities started losing so much money. Smith Industries takes more and more of their business every fucking year, in fact, and the irony is that they didn’t even start out as a security company. No, they began in construction which is what pisses his mother off the most, but it’s impossible to deny that the way Erwin Smith had expanded their services to include security and even more shit than that is what helped them become so successful.

Even if he hadn’t known that, Levi thinks, their growth is more than obvious to him, as he can see their offices from his window in the Ackerman’s small six story building, sitting across the city at the top of a very shiny, very sleek looking modern skyscraper. Every time Kuchel comes into his office he can see her glaring at it, but he guesses he doesn’t blame her. Apparently — or at least, according to her — Erwin Smith is a real slimy scumbag, manipulative, devious, and conniving in the way that he runs his business. She says that his dealings are underhanded and he’s the most unscrupulous asshole she’s ever worked with, and that because he has no shame and no principles, there is nothing he won’t do to get what he wants even if it’s something  _ dirty _ . 

For those reasons, Kuchel has stated — to Smith’s face, which doesn’t surprise Levi at all — that she would  _ never _ sell Ackerman Securities to a disgusting bastard like him, but sometimes, Levi finds himself wondering if he’d honestly even care. Of course, that doesn’t mean he doesn’t believe what she says about the guy, because despite the fact that Kuchel is known to exaggerate when she’s angry, all of the descriptors she gives fit Levi’s opinion about wealthy corporate types in general. Does it matter, though? In his mind, the offers that Smith has given to his mother seem pretty generous, as the amount of money he’d proposed would mean that no one in his family would have to work or be concerned about funds for the entire rest of their fucking lives again. 

Additionally, all of their employees would get to keep their jobs, their pay rates, and their benefits, which means that Kuchel could make the deal without even having to feel any guilt or worry about that shit. She could retire rich and then he would be free to do whatever he wanted with his life and work on something that he enjoyed without anything to fucking bother him, because Ackerman Securities would be absorbed into Smith Industries and technically cease to exist, and why would he give a shit if it’s new owner was shameless in instituting his corporate agenda? That wouldn’t be his problem, but he knows his mother doesn’t see it that way. 

Again, she cares about the family business far more than Levi does, and his feelings about the matter are just one more thing he can never fucking reveal to her. 

_ “Yes.” _ She practically hisses in response to Levi saying what she’d wanted to hear, in fact.  _ “I have no doubt that embarrassing us will be the first thing on his fucking mind. I still think that sleazy, pigheaded bastard is behind that article that came out last month. He’s trying to make things worse for us so that I’ll give in and sell him the company. Can you believe that he emailed me again a few days ago, asking if I had reconsidered his latest offer after I’ve told him no a hundred fucking times— _

Levi bit back another sigh, & again looked out the window forlornly, spacing out as he stared in favor of enduring his mother’s rant. He’d heard it all before, he thinks, ‘a hundred fucking times,’ in fact, and he’d rather strangle himself with his own tie than hear about the stupid article she mentioned again. It was some out of the blue thing that had appeared in the financial section of the newspaper, he recalls, talking about their ‘failing company’ and how their services are continually becoming more and more out of date. His mother had been shocked and appalled because really, it  _ was _ embarrassing, and they had not even been contacted for a comment or the opportunity to defend themselves. 

For that reason, and because the journalist had not returned her calls, Kuchel had immediately suspected that Erwin Smith had been behind its conception. Naturally, Levi wasn’t so sure. However, there’s never any convincing his mother, who’d then had him calling newspapers and journalists for an entire week trying to float interest for a positive article — all of which was to no avail, because the bad press had really done a number. Whatever, though. He isn’t sure the article was all that wrong, but again, keeping his mouth shut is better than dealing with the fallout that would come from him saying that shit out loud.

_ “Do you have your speech ready?” _ Kuchel interrupts his thoughts, this time with something that makes him snap right back to attention from where he’d zoned out. 

_ Shit,  _ he thinks too. He had been  _ hoping  _ that she wasn’t going to fucking ask him about that. “Uh…”

_ “Levi...I thought you said you’d finished it last night?” _

“It’s almost ready. I looked at it, and there were still a few sentences that didn’t sound right.” 

_ “Well, do you want me to review it? I’ll be going to the airport soon, but I can take a few minutes.” _

“No.” Levi states, perhaps too fast. Even if he hadn’t been lying just now — he hasn’t even started the speech he will have to make when he presents their donation later that night, and had been planning to do it at the last fucking minute — there is no way in hell he would let his mother read it, because then it would turn into an hours long nightmare of edits and discussion. “It’s fine.”

_ “Alright, but don’t wait until the last minute. This is the biggest event we go to all year, and there will be press there. It’s important, especially after that shit from last month.” _

“I know, mom. Don’t worry.”

_ “Just remember: sound professional, but interested. And be positive.” _

“Yeah. _ Be. positive.” _ Levi repeats, in what is probably his blankest, most bored sounding tone yet.

This time, his mother does pick up on it, but thankfully, all she does is sigh and tell him ‘good luck’ before finally letting him off the damn phone. As soon as he hears the ‘click’ from her line, he tosses his down and then leans back in his chair, groaning loudly as he rubs at his face with his hands in frustration. _ Fuck, _ he thinks, why couldn’t she have come back from her business trip one goddamn day sooner? Why, if she’s so worried about how he handles this, had she not returned to just do it herself? The answer is, of course, that going alone is just part of his ‘training,’ but he fucking hates it, all of it, and giving speeches is perhaps the shittiest part of everything — especially when it has to do with their corporation, and when he has to write them all up himself. 

He’s terrible at that, but the problem is not that he’s afraid of talking in front of crowds. No, he can deal with that well enough even though its not his favorite thing, but it’s just...well, everything he will be required to say that night is just going to be completely fucking fake, and he doesn’t enjoy the thought of having to get on a stage and talk about how he’s proud to donate whatever number of dollars to a fundraiser that was actually decided upon by how much everyone else in the room was giving too. It’s shitty, and that — along with the fact that he dreads the function in general — is why he has procrastinated like this, and ended up suddenly stressed out because of the renewed pressure just put upon his shoulders by his mother. 

_ Shit,  _ he thinks again. So much for getting out of the office early. Before, he’d planned on leaving and then just scribbling some shit down in the car ride on the way over to the event, but now he  _ guesses  _ he can’t do that, and should probably get it knocked out now to make sure that it isn’t complete garbage. Unfortunately, that’s a lot harder than it sounds, and he ends up just staring at his computer screen for 30 minutes before he gets lucky and Petra — who he had hired to be his PA three years ago and has since become his best friend — walks into his office. 

“Levi, did you pick up your tux? I forgot to ask.” She says, causing Levi to just look at her in mild confusion for a moment and raise an eyebrow.

“Uh...yeah, I did, but what the hell are you doing here?” He mumbles, watching her catch sight of said tux and go over to inspect it. “I thought you were leaving earlier.”

His assumption is based on the fact that he had told her himself she could go if she wanted to, as he had found no reason to keep her there when he didn’t have much going on and he’d been planning on leaving himself later. It’s bad enough for her that she has to attend the fundraiser that night with him too, he thinks, although truthfully, she is actually excited about it. She likes parties and socializing and shit like that, and had volunteered to be his ‘plus one’ when they’d been viewing the invitation. 

_ “I mean, it’s not like you have a date, right?”  _ She’d said, teasing, of course, but still prompting Levi to make an indignant face at her because they both knew that she was right. 

Levi did not have a date. He  _ never  _ has a date, and hadn’t even been on one in almost 2 fucking years because ‘he doesn’t have time,’ although that excuse is only the half of it. Really, dating is just exhausting and most men are shit, and the last three times he’d even tried had been a fucking disaster. Now, he doesn’t bother because his job makes his life difficult enough, which doesn’t stop Petra, however, from prodding him about it all the time and offering to be his ‘wingman’ at every opportunity. 

_ “No.” _ He’d replied, scowling.  _ “No, I don’t have a date. Thanks for fucking reminding me.”  _

_ “Well, maybe there will be some hot guy in a suit that you hit it off with. If there is, I’ll make sure he notices you.” _

_ “Petra— _

_ “Levi, I think if you just get laid for once, you’ll feel a lot better. You don’t have to go on a date to find someone that will sleep with you.” _

At that point, Levi had ended their conversation by rolling his eyes and flinging the invitation through the entrance of his office, prompting Petra to sigh heavily before getting up to go retrieve it. Naturally, once she did Levi just shut the glass door behind her, raising his hand to make a rude gesture through it that she returned by sticking her tongue out.

He doesn’t need to get laid, he thinks. No, his hand has proven to be just fine for the times that he actually has the urge, which honestly isn’t even that often, because the constant stress and his overworked state give him little time and energy to be horny. He can’t even remember the last time he’d been in the mood, in fact, and yeah, it’s fucking shitty that it affects him like that, but it’s also something that he isn’t really sure how to explain to Petra. It would be awkward, he thinks, and it’s kind of embarrassing, but still, despite her well-intentioned but bothersome comments, he can’t deny that he’s relieved he’ll have company at the fundraiser that night. 

Going alone would be worse than anything, and he knows that her bright, friendly presence makes his dour one look less...well, dour. Even so, though, that doesn’t explain why the hell she’s still at work, because if it had been him, he would’ve left in a rush seconds after being given permission. 

“I was finishing up a few things, and then your mother called after she talked to you. She asked me to come and make sure that you were ready for tonight, and to see if your speech is done by now.” She explains, prompting Levi to sit up straight so that he can look at Petra more closely to make sure she’s serious.

“Are you fucking kidding me?!” He exclaims too, now suddenly feeling his mild annoyance morph into actual anger. “I told her everything was fine!”

_ Goddammit. _ He thinks to himself, because — although he isn’t surprised in the least — he hates when his mother does that kind of shit. It makes him feel like a fucking kid, like she doesn’t trust him to do anything right when really, even if he does hate every minute of his day at Ackerman Securities, he always manages to get everything done and do what she needs to the best of his ability. 

Thankfully, Petra at least knows that, and is always understanding of the frustration he experiences too.

“I figured you did. I told her I would check, but also that I didn’t think she had anything to worry about. I said you were ready and seemed like you were looking forward to it, and that you were motivated to make the company look good.” She says, which causes Levi to snort. 

Okay, he remembers, Petra is also really, really good at covering his ass in addition to everything else. 

“Thanks.” He mumbles, right as Petra begins to give him a very knowing smile. 

Carefully, she walks further inside his office and shuts the door behind her, making sure that no one will pass by and be able to overhear what she says next.  

“No problem.” She says. “But on a scale of 1 to 10, how big was that lie?”

“Uhh...I dunno. Fuck, maybe like an 8?”

“Wow, Levi, that’s even worse than usual.” 

“It’d be a lot lower if you hadn’t told her that I was motivated and looking forward to it.”

At that, Petra laughs, as Levi slouches back down into his chair with a scowl on his face. 

“Okay, but really, are you actually ready or not?” She asks, while Levi bites his lip.

“I haven't done the speech.” He admits, frowning. “But that’s the only thing left. I have my tux and the company checkbook, and I memorized the numbers. You already told Oluo what time to pick us up, right?”

“Yeah. Do you need me to help you with the speech?”

Petra’s question makes Levi pause, as his first instinct is to say ‘fuck yes,’ because he knows Petra could write it in probably ten minutes. However, she’s already stayed later than expected, and he doesn’t want to make her stay even longer than that just to help him with something that he should have already done, and when there’s no real reason that he shouldn’t be able to do it anyway. It’s not like it has to be long, he thinks. It’s not like it has to be anything fancy, either, because really, it’s pretty simple in comparison to some other speeches he’s heard his mother give throughout his life. Still, he hesitates, and although he hadn’t meant to, it’s long enough for Petra to look at him and notice.

“I’ll take that as a yes, then?” She asks, in a cheery tone that Levi can’t possibly fucking imagine having right then. 

“You don’t have to.” Is his response, though, shaking his head and waving his hand, which is what he should have done in the first place. “Just go home.”

“It’s not a big deal, Levi.”

“No, I already told you to go. I should be the one writing it anyway, or I’m sure my mom will have an aneurysm.”

Petra’s scoff drags his gaze back from where he’d focused it again on his computer screen. 

“She won’t know, and it won’t take long. I can just pull some of her old speeches from this event, and slap something together. I’m pretty sure they all sound the same anyway.”

“But—

“Just let me do it, Levi, and then we can both get out of here early, okay?”

Levi stares at her for another moment, knowing he should just tell her no because although she may be his PA, he tries not to be a shitty boss or take advantage of her services. Still, she makes a convincing argument and doesn’t seem to mind, and so he finally just sighs and then throws his hands in the air, sitting back up in his chair to happily close out Microsoft Word. 

“Fine.” He says, while making a mental note to try to get her another raise soon. 

As he does so, she smiles again and disappears, presumably going back to her own office to work something up. Just as he’d predicted, it only takes about ten minutes before she’s back again, holding a piece of nice paper with a speech typed up on it. It’s only about 10 fucking lines, he sees, which makes him chastise himself all over again, but he reads it and thinks it sounds perfect — not only for the event, but for him too. The tone isn’t too chipper and it doesn’t contain any grandiose, exaggerated statements that will make him cringe more than he’s already going to, and he ends up shaking his head in amazement, folding up the paper and sticking it into his messenger bag as he stands up to get ready to go.

“Thanks.” He tells her, as she leaves his office too. “You’re even better at my fucking job than I am. Maybe you should have the damned position.”

Obviously, his comment is sarcastic — at least in reference to him. He truly has no doubt that Petra could do his job and also excel at it, but understandably, she has no desire to do so even if that was actually a real option.

“I’ll pass!” Levi hears her call out, in fact, right before he leaves and locks his office door behind him to head to the elevator.

He waits for her there and they walk out together, as she reaffirms the schedule for that night on her phone. 

“Okay, so Oluo will pick me up at 7:00, and we’ll head to your place. We should be there by 7:30 for sure, and then we can head to the fundraiser. It starts at 8:00, but the donation part won’t begin until 8:30.” She says, adding the fact that she had told Oluo — who is the company driver for shit like this — to pick her up earlier than necessary since half the time he’s late. 

“Good fucking thinking.” Levi snorts, right before they say their temporary goodbyes and go their separate ways. 

Petra takes the subway home while he just gets a cab, not wanting to deal with the crowds and the underground heat when he’s having to hold his tux over his shoulder in a plastic bag. Also, it’s much faster and he wants to get home as quickly as possible, maybe to take a damned nap because that might help with his mood. Hopefully, his mother won’t fucking call him again — she should be on a plane soon, but that’s never stopped her before — and wake him up, but at least if she does he for sure has a speech ready so he won’t have to hear anymore complaining.

Somehow, he gets lucky and she doesn’t, and he finds himself opening his eyes when his alarm goes off after he’d crashed face first down on his bed. He hadn’t even bothered to get under any blankets, but whatever, it probably wouldn’t have made waking up for this any fucking easier. Groaning, he rolls over and grabs his phone to turn the alarm off, staring at the time forlornly because he knows that there’s no more putting his awful evening off, and that he has no choice but to get out of bed and start getting ready. Still, he procrastinates for ten more minutes before he eventually trudges into the bathroom, pulling off his work clothes from earlier so that he can take a quick shower. 

Once he does that he brushes his teeth, shaves his face smooth, & slicks his hair back all with a towel around his waist, frowning into the mirror the entire time that he works, and then scowling when a few pieces of his bangs refuse to stay in place and he veritably has to wrestle them into submission with pomade and a comb. Next, he dabs on the expensive cologne he’d gotten as a birthday gift one year and grabs his tuxedo, somehow repressing a sigh before he begins the extremely arduous process of putting it on. Of course, as much as he complains he can’t actually lie and say that he hates getting dressed up, because that’s not the case, it’s just everything that usually comes with it which he actually fucking despises so much. 

Whatever, though. Ironically, getting ready and fixing his bowtie has distracted him from his woes about that evening until Petra shows up, looking like a movie star in a silky, emerald green, slip-like dress with her hair curled and her fancy makeup done perfectly. As usual, the effort she’s put into her appearance just reminds Levi how much she enjoys social events like this, and he finds himself shaking his head, although teasingly, because in truth, she looks gorgeous and he’s grateful that most people will be staring at her and not at him.

“For fuck’s sake.” He says though, letting her in the door. As she walks by, her heels click on the hardwood, and he would have frowned about the fact that she’s taller than him if he wasn’t already used to such shit. “Where’d you get that one?”

Nodding his head in her direction, he references her dress, which looks well made and like it had cost several hundred dollars. It’s nice and fits her well, he thinks, because even if he’s gay, he still has no problem admiring her fashion choices objectively — especially since sometimes they actually go shopping together. 

“I thrifted it, actually.” Petra replies, with a smug smile on her face at what is certainly an impressive achievement.

“Shit. Not bad.” Is Levi’s response, raising his eyebrows and wondering how the hell she got lucky enough to find something like that at a thrift store. 

“Thanks. You look handsome too.” 

“Yeah, whatever. You sound like my mother.”

“But it’s true, Levi. You should wear your hair like that more often.”

“Why, so I can look like a greasy, corporate asshole all the time? Do you know how much shit I have to put into my hair to get it to stay like this? It’s disgusting.”

“No, but it doesn’t look disgusting, I promise. If you went to a gay bar dressed like that, you’d get hit on for sure.”

Levi can only roll his eyes and shake his head at that statement, mostly because he’s realized they’re going to be late — apparently, the extra 30 minutes Petra had given Oluo wasn’t fucking enough — and he’s now hurriedly trying to find his wallet and keys, but also because they aren’t going to a fucking gay bar. They’re going to what will surely be a boring, hoity-toity event full of old wrinkly men and the very corporate assholes Levi doesn’t want to look like, and even if that wasn’t the case, he’s not going there to try to get hit on. 

Still, he does appreciate her compliments, and makes sure to thank her for real as he finds his things and they leave his apartment. Once he locks the door, they head out to where Oluo is parked and climb into the car, getting settled in silence because Levi is too distracted by his dread to bother scolding him for being late. Knowing Petra, she’d probably done so anyway during her ride over, but even if she hadn’t, she makes up for it by complaining to him all over again the second that he starts driving. They bicker like siblings the entire way there, in fact, but Levi doesn’t converse much because...well, he’s starting to feel a bit anxious, which is common for him when he has to go out of his comfort zone for the first time while handling business shit without his mother, his _ boss. _

Of course, it doesn’t help that this is probably the most important responsibility he’s held so far — or at least, the most symbolic one, because everything that he’s done before that has been behind the scenes, and now he will be putting himself out there as a real representative of the company and everyone will know what it means: that he’ll be in charge soon, and will eventually become the entire face of Ackerman Securities after Kuchel retires. Honestly, the thought of that right then makes him want to throw up, as does the worry he feels that he’ll somehow do something to fuck this up and disappoint his mother. 

She’s not cruel, he knows, and she wouldn’t be angry, but she’s depending on him to not only get this right, but to take her place and be successful, and he can’t help but feel like this is some sort of test, one that he suspects will make things worse for his mother and the company image by failing it. It’s a lot of pressure, and something about the way his nerves are clenching unpleasantly in his belly because of that must have shown on his face, as Petra stops her conversation with Oluo and suddenly puts a hand on his forearm without warning.

“You okay?” She asks quietly, wearing a sympathetic expression that indicates she knows very well what he’s probably feeling. 

“Yeah. M’fine.” He responds almost automatically, because he really doesn’t actually have a fucking choice but to be okay. 

Still, he’s not impaired by the stress, and he’s quite sure that he’ll feel a bit better once he has some alcohol in his system to steady himself. Thankfully, Oluo makes up for his tardiness with speed, and they arrive at the venue for the fundraiser — it’s being held at a grand hotel and convention center, one of the oldest ones in the city — with about 10 minutes to spare, which is just enough time for Levi to hit the bar for a shot of vodka and then a double on the rocks, which he takes into the banquet room with him to nurse during the ceremony. He thinks he’ll be fine with just that, or at least, he does until he walks in to head to his seat, and is stopped in place by a giant check displayed on an easel just inside the door. 

An early donation? Obviously, that’s what it is, although it isn’t  _ that  _ fact which makes his eyes widen and his stomach sink, but the number written on the damned thing and who has fucking signed it: $800,000.00,  _ generously _ given out by Erwin Smith from Smith Industries, Inc.

“Shit.” Levi groans, because that’s so much money — almost a million fucking dollars, for fuck’s sake — and far, far more than his mother and Ackerman Securities could have ever been able to afford to donate themselves. “Eight fucking hundred  _ thousand _ dollars...Petra—

“I know.” Petra interrupts, looking a little forlorn herself as they both stare at the ridiculously large check.

“Why is it even out here? Did he just pledge it before?” 

“He must have. But...maybe that means he won’t be here?”

Levi raises an eyebrow at that, and hopes that Petra is right. It makes sense and consoles him a bit as well, because he’s honestly been kind of worried that he’d have to speak to the bastard, that he’d find Levi after seeing him on stage and start bothering him about buying his mother’s company. That’s the last thing he’d want to deal with, he thinks, but still, he’s fucking irritated at the fucking check, and just as fucking irritated at himself too for being annoyed by it in the first place. After all, it’s money being donated to a good cause, which is good, but there’s no way they can get close to that amount even after adjusting the planned percentage to the maximum 11% that his mother has given him permission for.

Hell, even if he gave their entire 15% of projected yearly profit that day it still wouldn’t be enough, and he knows it will make Kuchel feel bad because it will just remind her of how much the company is failing. His only hope, he supposes, is that Smith’s donation is far above average and all the others will be around his level, which again, makes him feel like an asshole to think because he should want  _ all  _ of the money given to be high. Part of him really does, of course, but it’s often the battle between his conscience and his responsibilities that make all of this so fucking difficult for him.  

He doesn’t want to lose his soul, he thinks, and become like many of the cold, corporate assholes that he knows are sitting in this room, but he’s not sure that it’s possible to find a balance that will actually work. Suppressing a sigh, then, because now isn’t the time to even think about that shit, he steels himself for the banquet to come and his stupid speech that will basically amount to nothing, and knocks back the double vodka — so much for nursing it, he thinks — before placing it on a passing waiter’s tray. Then, he and Petra find their table and get seated to wait for the first course of dinner, which will be served during the ceremony along with wine and however much alcohol Levi wants to drink.

Of course, he’s not going to overdo it because he knows better than that, but he’s at least thankful to realize that he doesn’t feel nervous anymore, although that probably has to do with the fact that he already knows the outcome of this more than the vodka. Yes, because he’s already seen Smith’s donation — which is likely what his mother will focus on — and knows he can’t match it, the pressure is somewhat off his shoulders, as even if it looks bad for him he at least knows what he’s dealing with. The only thing he has to be concerned about now is his speech, which he thankfully doesn’t fuck up, but probably doesn’t manage to deliver in the best way that he could either when the time actually comes. 

He’d tried, he thinks, he really had, but that kind of shit is just not his forte, and it's hard for him to pretend when his heart just isn’t in the proceedings. Still, he’s not in a terrible mood once it’s all over with — after they’d sat for nearly three hours of self-aggrandizing speeches and donations — because he’s just relieved to be done with it, and he and Petra end up sticking around the bar outside for a few more drinks because...well, they’re complementary that night for anyone who was on the invite list. At that point, he is kind of tipsy and finds some amusement in making fun of all the old, stuffy, richer guests they see with Petra, until they both feel that it’s getting late and they should probably head home.

Petra calls Oluo and decides to go to the bathroom while he’s on his way, and Levi waits for her at the bar, swallowing the rest of his drink — a martini this time — before he makes the mistake of checking his email. Un-fucking-surprisingly, he has one from his mother as well as a text, both messages wanting to know how it went and asking him to call her.  _ Shit, _ he thinks then, suddenly feeling a fresh wave of frustration and despondency sweep through him all over again. What is he supposed to tell her? Sure, it’s not his fault that Smith is a multi-millionaire and Kuchel won’t blame him, but he dreads the conversation, and can’t help but feel a bit like he had let her down even though he’d done the best he could.

It’s irritating, and suddenly he just feels really, really weary, sick and tired of the pressure and of ending up guilty and disappointed in himself when he failed at something that was out of his control. Knowing that he’ll have to spend the rest of his life doing shit like this too is  _ not  _ a thought that makes anything better right then, and for a moment he feels somewhat downcast, wishing that he could find a way out of his predestined future that doesn’t involve him just running away. Sometimes he does want to do that, of course, but he can’t, although he thinks that even just a break from the bullshit would be nice, or an opportunity to get away for a while, to  _ forget _ , because this is all neverending otherwise and its honestly fucking exhausting.

Still, as much as he does wish for a change, sitting around feeling sorry for himself is stupid and pitiful and not something he likes doing — he’s lucky that he has a job at all, and a decent salary with a confirmed future position — and he doesn’t want to talk about it so he needs to stop frowning for Petra. Somehow, he manages to at least not be scowling when she comes back, but even if he had been, it would’ve been wiped from his face out of surprise when he hears a deep, smooth voice calling out from beside them.

“Excuse me.” A man is saying — a very handsome man, Levi sees, blonde-haired and blue-eyed and looking like he’d just stepped out of a magazine in his black and white tuxedo. “Are you leaving? I was hoping I could buy you a drink.”

Naturally, Levi assumes the man is talking to Petra. She’s pretty and striking in her dress and has been attracting stares all night, and...well, even if she hadn’t been, there’s just no way in hell that he actually means Levi no matter what. Despite the fact that he can’t tell  _ who  _ exactly he’s focusing on he feels absolutely sure of it, and so he automatically glances at Petra to see what her response will be, only to find right away that she’s just looked to him in confusion too. He shakes his head then — as imperceptibly as he can — in an effort to tell her that the man isn’t,  _ can’t be _ , talking to him, and watches as she turns back, opening and closing her mouth once or twice in uncertainty before she finally manages to speak.

“Well...I—

“I’m sorry.” The man interrupts then, adopting a somewhat sheepish expression before he pins his gaze on Levi — this time so unmistakably that he can’t help how his eyes widen. “I hope I don’t offend, but I actually meant your friend here.”

Still, Levi doesn’t believe it. Still, he can’t buy the fact that this gorgeous, tall,  _ strapping  _ man wants to purchase him a drink, as that would certainly mean he’d piqued his interest, and probably not just in a fucking friendly way either. Somehow, though, it  _ does  _ turn out to be true, even after Levi remains silent out of shock for a few seconds and unintentionally makes the man a bit confused. 

“Ah…” He starts, now looking between them both. “I mean, unless you two are—

At that, at what was surely about to be an assumption that they were a couple and that was why this was so fucking awkward, Petra bursts out laughing because she apparently finds the idea fucking hilarious. In any other instance, Levi would agree with her, but now his heart is pounding in his chest and he’s unsure, although he can’t deny that he feels the tiniest hint of excitement bubbling up inside his belly too.

“Nope.” Petra says then, grabbing her purse from the bar and clearly preparing to leave. “There’s not a straight bone in his body. He’s all yours, handsome. Good luck.”

_ “Petra!” _ Levi hisses, not because he thinks she’s flirting with the guy because she’s not, but because...well, is she seriously just going to  _ leave  _ him there?

“Levi.” Petra responds to him, murmuring and turning a bit so that ‘handsome’ as she’d called him, can’t see or hear what she’s saying over the loud music and cacophony of background voices. “I’m going to the car. I’m going to tell Oluo to wait for 20 minutes in case he’s a jerk. But if he’s not, I really think that you should stay and have some fun for once, okay? This guy is hot, and he clearly wants to talk to you.”

Levi opens his mouth to say something back, but he can’t when he involuntarily looks over Petra’s shoulder to see that the man is still watching him curiously. When Levi locks eyes with him, he smiles, and the sight is so ridiculously fucking beautiful that whatever argument he’d had immediately dies on his tongue. Instead, his heart flutters, and he suddenly starts to feel the beginnings of something that he hasn’t experienced in a long, long,  _ long  _ fucking time:  _ want. _ Because of that, whatever remaining reservations he might have had about this quickly disappear, and after another moment of thought, he finds himself deciding that...well, it wouldn’t hurt to just  _ see  _ what this guy is like, right?

“Fine.” He mutters under his breath, deciding to take Petra’s words to heart, although honestly a bit begrudgingly because she’s now smirking at him in a very smug manner. “Just fucking go home. I can get a cab if I need to.”

“Okay. Good luck.” Petra tells him the same thing she had Handsome which causes him to make a face, keeping it trained on her even as she turns to give the guy a devious smile and a friendly wave goodbye. 

Then, she’s gone, and Levi is left sitting at his barseat with the man offering to buy him a drink standing a few feet away. He has his hands in his pockets and, after turning back from where he’d watched Petra go, looks at Levi a bit expectantly, although he has no idea what he’s supposed to fucking do or say. Honestly, part of him still believes this is a mix-up or a joke or the guy’s going to change his mind, but somehow, he doesn’t, and he clears his throat just when it feels like things are going to become awkward again. 

“Well...is that a ‘yes,’ then?” He asks, nodding in the direction of the empty seat besides Levi politely. “Can I buy you a drink?”

_ Oh. _ Levi thinks. Was that what he’d been waiting on? He’s not sure, but either way, he answers so fast and oddly — because he’s suddenly nervous, he can’t deny it — that he nearly makes himself wince, knowing that he probably sounds like a fucking idiot in front of someone obviously well-spoken and put together. “Oh yeah. Yeah. Uh...I mean, _ yes.” _

Cringing internally, Levi makes room as the guy smiles at him again warmly, and steps forward to sit down beside him, causing Levi to swallow and force himself to look away so that he won’t just stare. 

“What would you like?” He’s asked though, just as the bartender returns from where he’d been taking care of other guests to get their order. 

Levi requests another martini and his new drinking partner gets a glass of whiskey, and after that, they start chatting, and Levi finds himself gradually relaxing because Handsome — or Blondie, as Levi has decided to call him in his head — is not, he quickly discovers, a jerk, or at least as best he can tell from the 30 minutes they spend together at the bar. During that time, he finds that the guy is polite, charming, and easy to talk to, although it helps when he finally accepts that he’s there because Levi has caught his eye. He believes it when the flirtatious smile that Blondie keeps wearing when he talks to him becomes more obvious, as well as the way that he dares to lean closer to his ear to speak to him, along with how Levi catches his gaze lingering all over him throughout their conversation. 

Of course, he is doing the exact same fucking thing, because it’s almost impossible  _ not  _ to stare when there’s an actual adonis sitting a foot away from him, with a face that could have been sculpted from marble and a physique that’s positively drool-worthy, even clothed. The tuxedo he’s wearing just makes it all that much worse, and with his perfectly combed golden hair and beautiful blue eyes, he really does look like he’d walked out of a men’s fashion magazine. He’s just fucking gorgeous, Levi thinks, and he sits there and watches his lips move as he talks and his hands shifting on the bar — they’re very large, and look strong — and ends up zoning out, imagining things that cause the small amount of want he’d experienced earlier to begin to turn into...well, full blown _ lust.  _

In his mind, he thinks of the mouth he sees kissing him in the dark, hungrily capturing his lips while those big, broad palms grab greedy handfuls of bare skin and squeeze at his ass. He hears the man breathing heavily in his ear and can almost feel the heat radiating from his body as they move together, and it’s then that he realizes this  _ may  _ be the opportunity he’d been looking for to forget all of his problems. Hell, hadn’t Blondie appeared almost immediately after he’d been thinking about how much he needed a fucking break from the bullshit, no matter how small? He had, almost as if he’d fallen right into Levi’s very stressed, very overwhelmed lap, in fact, and at that point, he is of the mind that he would be stupid as shit to just ignore it.

Why should he deny himself the chance to let go and have fun for one night when its been presented to him like this, he wonders? Isn’t this the exact thing that Petra has been trying to tell him all along? Pretty much, he knows, and he’ll have to make sure to tell her she’s right after this is all over with — or at least, he will if its heading to where he  _ thinks  _ it’s headed, because he supposes he’s assuming a lot about what this man  _ really _ wants from him in the end. However, he’s not an idiot; he was in college once and had his fair share of hookups and one night stands that started at bars during his early 20’s, and he has no doubt that this handsome, smooth guy had come over there with hopes that this might lead to something, even if he’s being pretty polite about it.

He hasn’t tried anything yet, but then again, it’s only been 30 minutes. 30 minutes, however, is enough for Levi to decide exactly what he wants, and to think that he might as well cut to the chase because he suddenly needs to get fucked so badly that he can barely even think straight. 

“Hey.” He says then, interrupting Blondie from whatever the hell he’d been talking about to place a hand on his forearm. Feeling confident from the attention he’s received, he throws all caution to the wind and slides his palm down to the man’s hand, caressing the back of it lightly before slipping the tips of his fingers underneath the sleeve of his jacket and shirt. “You wanna get out of here and find some place more private to chat?”

For a moment, the man blinks at him — honestly looking taken aback, as if he’s surprised Levi had asked him that question. Then, though, he glances down to where Levi is touching him pointedly and then back up again to look into his eyes, and smiles  _ devilishly,  _ right before he leans close enough to murmur directly into Levi’s ear. As he does so, a whiff of some sort of spicy, rich cologne reaches his nose, and it’s all he can do not to just climb into his fucking lap right then and there to taste him. “Just to be clear, by ‘chat’ you mean—

“I mean, I want you to fuck me so good that I can’t remember my own name. You think you can handle that, big guy?”

This time, the man doesn’t seem shocked by Levi’s boldness. Instead, his eyes flash with something like excitement before he gives him a nod, moving to down the rest of his drink in one big gulp before he steps down from his seat. 

“I can handle it.” He says, licking his lips and eyeing Levi up and down so heatedly that he has to suppress a shiver. “But I don’t want to wait. I’ll get us a room upstairs; how does that sound?” 

“Fine, but I need a minute. I’ll meet you in the lobby, by the front desk.” Levi responds, barely able to control the sudden anticipation he feels at Blondie’s apparent impatience to fuck him, and waiting until he’d nodded, walked off, and given Levi a view of his perfectly tight ass before getting out his phone to text Petra. 

The ‘minute’ he’d asked for is so that he can do so, just because he wants to let her know where he’ll be in case there’s some kind of an emergency or this guy turns out to be a murderer, or something. Levi is  _ pretty  _ sure that isn’t case, but he’s not an idiot, and with his luck, the entire Ackerman Securities building will fucking burn down on the one night where no one can find him if he doesn’t tell her. She’ll help diffuse other, lesser situations that might pop up where he’d be needed too so he can have his fun — he  _ knows  _ she will — and that alone is worth the hundreds of question she’s surely going to ask him about this the next morning.

_ I’m staying at the hotel tonight. _ He texts her, with that in mind.  _ I’ll call you tomorrow. _

She doesn’t respond right away, and he doesn’t wait around for it. Instead, he turns his phone off, but not without remembering the messages he’d gotten from his mother asking about how the fundraiser had gone. Staring at the now dark screen, he wonders for a moment if he should just shoot off a quick email to tell her what had happened — she’s sitting there on stand-by, he knows, probably with bated breath — but then decides that she too can wait until morning, and only hesitates for a single second longer before he shoves his cell into his pocket so that he can head for the lobby. 

Strangely, or perhaps not so much, the knowledge that his main form of communication is now cut-off feels incredibly freeing, and he again turns his thoughts to just  _ what  _ exactly is about to happen. Excitement surges through him then, so strongly that it nearly takes his breath away, and his heart begins to pound out of his fucking chest as he makes his way through the crowd toward their meeting spot. His stomach, he realizes, is doing flips too, but even though he’s become slightly nervous again — he hasn’t done this in a very, very long time, and never with someone who looks like  _ that  _ — the arousal and anticipation he feels pretty much outweighs everything else that might worry him.

_ God, _ he thinks, he can’t wait to get his hands on this man, to kiss him and pull all his clothing off and feel his weight on top of his body — hoping, at that point, that Blondie won’t be useless after one round because...well, now that he has this opportunity, the last thing he wants to do is waste it. The resolve he has for that is only strengthened when he lays his eyes on him again, of course, glimpsing his soon to be hook-up standing near the front desk like he’d told him to and looking just as delectable from far away as he had up close. Spotting him, Levi increases his pace and weaves around a few more people before he gets to him, and doesn’t even bother to hide the fact that he’s staring lustfully at Blondie’s hips while he approaches. 

He can’t help it, the man has his hands in his pockets again and it just draws his eye to them, but it doesn’t matter, for he very obviously checks Levi out once more too while smiling at him, daring to place a hand on his lower back to lead him toward the elevator so they can go to his room. The touch, although light from under his clothing, makes Levi’s skin burn and tingle — a sensation that spreads quickly until he can feel it from the top of his head to the very bottom of his toes. It causes him to feel impatient, too, and even more bold, and as soon as the elevator doors close and he sees that they’re alone, he doesn’t hesitate to reach out so that he can pull Blondie up against him for a kiss. 

He grabs at his suit jacket and his neck to bring him down to his level, and presses their lips together, feeling a thrill when the man stumbles a bit and forces Levi’s back up against the wall. He reacts quickly though, bracing himself with one arm over Levi’s head and reaching for his hip with the other, moving his mouth, sweeping his tongue past Levi’s lips, and kissing him back so thoroughly that Levi is breathless and near dazed by the time the elevator dings — after going up many, many floors, although Levi had certainly not noticed — and he has to pull away. For a moment, as the doors open, they just stare at each other and Levi can now see two spots of color standing out over Blondie’s magnificent cheekbones, along with a few strands of hair that have come loose to hang down over his forehead.

He looks at Levi — from his eyes to his mouth and back again — and licks his bottom lip as if to chase the taste of him, and then turns to exit the elevator, holding the door open for Levi and murmuring the number of their room once he hurries past. Together, they walk quickly towards it and Levi can sense the man’s gaze on his ass the entire time, confirming it only when he reaches the door and he glances over his shoulder to catch him staring before he can unlock it. Of course, Blondie sees him but only smiles in that same, wicked way from before, which seems very fucking promising, Levi thinks, if he’s actually reading him right. 

If he’s not...well, then he’ll find out soon, but either way, the few seconds that it takes for Blondie to push the door open seem to take an eternity, because he swears that he has never been this worked up in his life, and the teasing taste of this man that he’d had in the elevator is not enough to sate him for long when the full meal, so to speak, is right within reach. Indeed, once inside the hotel room he quickly shrugs off his suit jacket and then goes for his partner’s, pushing it off his shoulders while he takes Levi’s waist — fuck, his hands feel  _ huge  _ around it — and leads him a few steps backward.

“You’re very eager.” He says to him then, in a low tone that, even when laced with amusement, nearly sends a shiver down Levi’s spine in the dark. 

It’s quiet in the room, he thinks, and still in comparison to downstairs, and the realization that they’re finally alone,  _ truly _ alone, and there’s nothing more standing in his way makes so much fresh excitement surge through him that he nearly feels giddy.

“Yeah, well…” He responds with a hint of it in his voice, now working at loosening Blondie’s tie and unbuttoning his vest — which, of course, looks goddamn amazing on him, accentuating what Levi sees is a very trim waist in comparison to his broad shoulders.  _ “Carpe diem, _ and all that shit, right?”

At that, the man laughs, although it comes out as more of a deep rumble inside his chest because he’s already drawn Levi close to him again and given him another kiss. This time, his lips don’t stop there and go lower, pressing heatedly against Levi’s jaw, neck, and on the soft, sensitive skin right below his ear. One of his hands, too, seems to follow a similar path, sliding around from Levi’s hip to caress at the small of his back and pull his shirt out of his pants, right before falling downward so that he can abruptly grab at Levi’s firm ass. He takes a handful of it and squeezes,  _ roughly _ , and Levi cannot help but let out a needy sound already, only able to cling to the man for a moment before he starts working at his clothing again hurriedly. 

His fingers fly to the buttons of Blondie’s shirt and pop them open as quickly as he can, only managing to get about halfway down before he becomes too impatient and pushes him away so that he can just pull everything over his head. He practically leaps onto his toes for another kiss once he’s done, eagerly running his hands over the man’s warm, bare chest for a moment, and pushing him backward towards where the bed must be too before he suddenly finds himself picked up, lifted into Blondie’s arms as he exhibits a flash of strength that makes Levi’s gut twist in arousal. Kissing him again, he moves his mouth over Blondie’s excitedly, breathing heavily through his nose and nipping at his bottom lip to make him grunt. 

The sound is accompanied by the sensation of his fingers digging into Levi’s thighs, and he’s vaguely aware that he’s being carried somewhere — a place that, naturally, turns out to be the bed once he’s deposited none too gently on the mattress, still with all of his clothes on except his jacket while the man pauses to strip his shoes, socks, and pants off so that he’s down to his underwear. Of course, Levi doesn’t mind because he’s treated to a fucking eyeful of a handsome, fit, six-foot-tall-plus man, and pushes himself up onto his elbows so that he can quickly look him over from head to toe with his mouth hanging open in something like awe. 

_ Shit, _ he thinks, taking in the man’s wide shoulders, illegal waistline, and thick, powerful looking thighs, he had really,  _ really  _ hit the fucking jackpot, and based on the sizeable bulge that he can see straining against his tight, white boxer briefs, the parts of his body he can see now isn’t even the half of it. Mouth watering, Levi stares, letting the dark blonde happy trail rising up from it lead his eyes to his chest and then back down again, unable to tear his gaze away until Blondie crawls onto the bed and in between his legs. He remains on his knees and grabs Levi’s wrists, and holds them above his head, staring down into his eyes through more strands of thick blonde hair that have fallen into his own. 

His face is flushed, Levi sees, and his parted lips red and wet, and although his blue eyes are bright, there is almost an inquisitive set to his features — one that Levi thinks might be there because he’s perhaps trying to discern if he really, truly wants this now that there’s almost no turning back. 

“Fuck me.” Levi breathes then, when he sees the man search his expression. “Fuck me, come on. Give it to me good, blondie, what are you waiting for?”

The man silences Levi with a hard kiss, rendering him breathless again while he attempts to grind himself up against one of his thighs. He squirms, and flexes his arms inside Blondie’s grip, and gasps when he suddenly tears his lips away to mouth hungrily at his neck. He nudges Levi’s head back so that he has more access, breathing hard himself through his nose as he kisses his skin with a fervor that he’s  _ sure  _ is partially induced by his goading. For that reason, Levi groans noisily and shifts as much as he can underneath him in an attempt to rile him up further, squirming and hooking his legs around the man’s thighs to try and pull him closer and down on top of him. 

Unfortunately, it doesn’t work, but the way that he squeezes Levi’s wrists in response, nipping and sucking at the skin of his throat aggressively, only serves to make him even more excited — if that’s possible.

“Wait.” He commands Levi then in a rough voice, however, releasing his hold on him so one of his hands can go for Levi’s tie. “I want to see you first.”

Levi’s response is just more wriggling, although not enough to prevent Blondie from removing his clothes, as that’s honestly something else that he really, really needs to happen now too. His tux is fucking restricting at this point, he thinks, and uncomfortable, and he’s sweating and hot enough so that his own mussed hair is sticking to his forehead. He looks forward to feeling the cool air of the hotel room on his skin almost as much as he does his partner’s body, he thinks, but naturally, the man takes his time, carefully undoing his bowtie from around his neck, unbuttoning the suit vest, and removing it all along with his shirt in a way that is calm and thorough in comparison to how Levi had taken off  _ his _ attire earlier.

However, once he’s done, once he’s tossed the upper portion of Levi’s clothing away, his reaction is similar to when Levi had first seen all of him, for he pauses from where he’d sat up on his knees to look him over, seeming to hold his breath as if he’d just seen something wondrous like a shooting star rather than a fucking person before carefully placing a palm over Levi’s stomach. Immediately, his abs contract in response to the contact — his fingers are warm, and Levi’s skin is sensitive to his touch — and he bites his lip, frozen for the moment while the man stares at his body even though he feels like he could explode just from the fact that his huge hand nearly covers half of his belly.  _ Goddammit, _ he thinks, barely holding back a whimper, is he going to go this slow the entire time? Why won’t he just—

“Fuck.” The man breathes then, falling back over Levi again to kiss his lips. “You’re so beautiful.”

At that, Levi is again surprised enough to still, flushing hotly at the compliment because that, ironically, makes him feel bashful when nothing else so far has, especially when he hadn’t been expecting it. He’s flustered, actually, and he wonders how the man can say that when he looks like a Greek god in comparison, but he doesn’t have time to doubt that he’d meant what he’d said when the attention he’s paying him now seems to be an attempt to prove it. Indeed, he again starts kissing a trail down Levi’s neck but doesn’t stop this time, thoroughly and intently exploring every inch of his chest with his mouth while his hands rove reverently over his skin. 

His fingers explore him and the attention  _ is  _ wonderful, Levi thinks, arching his back and grabbing onto Blondie’s hair when his lips purse around a nipple, but fucking maddening too, because his cock is practically throbbing between his legs now and every second that goes by seems to make it worse. He wants — no,  _ needs _ — to be touched where it counts so badly that it almost hurts, as it seems that all the many, many days that have gone by since Levi has been handled like this have just combined to make him equally as desperate. Making an impatient sound again, he squirms and then sucks in a breath when the man’s hand blessedly lowers to palm at his still clothed erection, groping at him none too gently and causing Levi’s hips to buck up on their own automatically.

He gasps, too, and thankfully, it’s not long after that before Blondie sits up again to undo Levi’s pants, something that he cannot help but assist him with hurriedly, lifting his ass and kicking his legs so that those and his underwear can be pulled off of him until he’s completely bare. Finally, he thinks, he’s fucking naked, and finds himself sitting up excitedly so that he can wrap his arms around the man’s neck to pull him back down over him again. Before he can do that, however, he stops, catching sight of the boxer briefs that Blondie is still wearing and deciding that...well, in his opinion, enough is fucking enough. The fact that he still has his underwear on at this point is criminal, Levi thinks, and he cannot imagine himself waiting any longer to see what’s lying beneath.  

Using his hands then to grab the man’s hips and still him, he slides a finger down to hook it into the elastic on his boxer briefs, slowly and teasingly pulling them low enough so that his hard cock springs forth mere inches from Levi’s face. Immediately, his mouth waters, because  _ fuck _ , now he’s looking at what is probably the most perfect looking dick he’s ever seen in his life, and it’s somehow even bigger than what he’d already expected. In fact, it’s huge, long and thick and pink with a plump tip that’s glistening with pre-come, and there’s a solid five seconds there where Levi can’t even think, where he’s just imagining it in his ass and how much it’s going to stretch him.

“Shit.” He eventually utters though, licking his lips before he glances up into the man’s eyes. Apparently, he’d been content on letting Levi have his look because he had not moved, and was instead just watching him with a bit of an amused expression on his face. When he meets Levi’s gaze, however, it changes into something heated, and it only gets more intense when Levi jerks his underwear the rest of the way down, grabs his cock, and declares coyly: “This is gonna be a tight fit, isn’t it?” 

The next thing Levi knows is that he’s on his stomach, as his words had apparently done something to stoke Blondie’s lust and make him a little bit more impatient too, enough so that he grabs Levi’s legs and flips him over roughly before Levi can start toying with him. Naturally, the first thing that Levi does in response to that is to spread his knees and stick his ass into the air, right as he feels two huge hands on his thighs — hands that dig into the muscle, and that drag him back an inch or two towards the man so that he can lean over and push his groin right up against his backside. 

“Don’t tell me it’s too much for you to handle.” He breathes into Levi’s ear too, licking what must have been a line of sweat off his neck before he nips at him there and grinds his cock against his ass for emphasis.

Honestly, it’s something of a fucking miracle that Levi is able to answer — particularly because the warm, hard press of Blondie’s sizeable dick against his skin mere inches away from where he wants it the most is enough to make him finally whimper, and also because...well, he’s laid all of his weight down on Levi for the first time, and he’s so big, so heavy, that he covers Levi completely and he can barely even think straight. 

“Fuck no.” He manages though, attempting to push back against the man’s cock — something which results in his own erection rubbing against the mattress, and a rush of pleasurable friction rocketing up his spine that abruptly makes him gasp. “Don’t flatter yourself.”

“Shall I try you, then?”

“Isn’t that what I’ve been fucking telling you to do all night?” 

At that, the man just chuckles in amusement from where he’d continued to suck and kiss at Levi’s neck, and then shifts slightly so that he can start to mouth lower. That is his response and he doesn’t stop despite Levi’s insistence, apparently intent on exploring the back side of him just as he’d done the front. True enough, he touches him all over near his waist while trailing his lips down his shoulders — rubbing at his thigh, squeezing his ass, letting his fingers ghost over the swell of one cheek and then down along the dip of his spine — and like before, although Levi is impatient and so aroused that he’s practically trembling at the attention, it feels good again and there’s no real reason for him to complain. After all, it’s not every day that a handsome man touches him with palms that feel almost worshipful, or calls him beautiful in a sincere, reverent way, as does Blondie by the time his mouth reaches the top of his ass. 

He says it again almost as if he’s talking to himself, Levi thinks, as if he’s just confirming what he’d already told him now that he’d explored both sides of him, but Levi cannot control how he whimpers upon hearing it this time, although the sound is muffled into the bedding, and turns into a gasp as he tries his best to rut his hips down against the bed. He’d done so in response to Blondie’s touch, squirming and breathing hard because the feel of his warm hands and soft, wet lips on his skin have just made his need worse — the fact that his mouth is on his ass now doesn’t help either — but fortunately, the man doesn’t linger, and moves so that he can reach over the bed to fumble around for something in his pants. 

At first, the lack of weight, the warmth, and the contact, is unwelcome, but he can’t really complain when he looks over his shoulder and realizes that Blondie has fully shed his underwear and come back with a packet of lube and a condom, treating Levi to the sight of him ripping both open roughly with his teeth. He’s giving him a positively heated, focused,  _ determined  _ look now too, like he wants to devour him, which causes Levi to experience a fresh rush of excitement, as well as more of the same burning anticipation — enough so that he grips the sheets and raises his ass up into the air again when the man returns. He grabs Levi’s waist with one hand to pull him back, flush against his own thighs, and gropes one cheek, sliding his palm up his back and down again excitedly before Levi hears him fumbling with the plastic. 

He’s breathing hard too, Levi thinks, and the way he’d just touched him was rough in comparison to the careful, gentle caresses he’d been receiving before — not that he’s complaining, though, because it seems that the man is finally just as turned on as he is. He moves quickly, and the next thing Levi knows is that the pad of Blondie’s thumb is pressed up against his entrance, wet and slick with lube and teasing him before Levi pushes back hard enough to cause it to slip inside. Immediately, he lets out a pleased sound, moaning low in his throat because...well, even if it’s not much, the penetration feels good, and despite his impatience, he  _ is  _ capable of enjoying it for a second or two before it suddenly becomes not enough.

In reality, it can never be enough, he thinks then, not in that moment and not that night, because when he’d decided to indulge and do this he hadn’t come up there to get leisurely fingered. No, he’d come up there to get fucked, preferably rough and hard and  _ fast  _ by the deliciously long, thick cock that belongs to the gorgeous man behind him, and  _ shit _ , he needs it so bad he moans wantonly now just thinking about how deep he could thrust into him. What the hell is Blondie fucking waiting on, he wonders? Levi is well aware of what he can handle and is sure that he’s not going to break or fall apart if he sticks it in now, although he supposes he would appreciate the man’s thoughts if he’s just treading carefully out of consideration for him. That’s probably it, but still, doesn’t he want to fucking get off too?

“Hey...” Levi urges then, exhaling his words breathily even as he rocks backwards towards his hand — right before he glances over his shoulder to give Blondie a  _ look _ . “Come on, I can take it. Fuck me, give me your cock,  _ now.” _

For a moment, the man pauses. His mouth hangs open and he rakes his eyes over Levi’s face, back, and ass greedily, and just before Levi starts to worry that his goading  _ still  _ hadn’t been enough, he springs into action, drawing his brows down tightly and removing his finger from him so that he can hurriedly roll on the condom and apply more lube. Then, he sits up fully onto his knees and uses one of them to roughly knock at Levi’s leg and nudge them further apart, moving to get in between them while he grabs at his ass with one hand — to spread his cheeks, to keep them open for what he’s about to do — and holds onto the base of his cock with the other. 

Like that, he positions the tip of it at Levi’s entrance while Levi feels his heart flutter with excitement, anticipation, and a fresh stab of arousal, all of it so strong that it causes him to arch his back and just groan preemptively.  

“If you need me to stop, say so.” Blondie says then though, distracting him from it all while  _ also _ promptly cutting off any snarky response Levi might’ve come up with by giving a tiny but  _ firm _ push with his hips.

_ Don’t fucking count on it, _ he’d wanted to say, but now, he can’t do anything but gasp sharply as the man’s dick finally starts to slide inside him. At first, there’s pressure from the blunt tip against his ass, but then it gives, and the first inch or two abruptly sink past his entrance and cause Levi’s breath to catch in his throat. He clenches too, almost automatically at the sudden intrusion, but then exhales and easily manages to relax, because  _ god _ , fuck, he’s so turned on and  _ this  _ is what he wants, and he shifts to dig his knees into the mattress so that he can move back against the man just slightly. 

He’s watching him closely, Levi suspects, and following his cues, but as Levi had already thought, he’s no stranger to shoving things up his ass even though it’s been a while, and he doesn’t have much of a problem — although it really is a tight,  _ tight  _ fit like he’d said. At least, that’s what it feels like while they work together slowly so that Blondie can slide ever deeper inside him, as Levi finds it almost hard to breathe when the sensation of his cock filling him up is so intense.  _ Fuck,  _ he thinks, groaning into the bedding and biting down onto it, barely realizing that by the time the man’s hips are pressed snugly up against his ass, his thighs are trembling, but not because he’s ‘unable to handle it,’ or whatever the hell Blondie had said to him earlier. 

No, it’s the opposite, because  _ holy shit,  _ he loves it, the feeling of being stretched to the point that it hinges on pain — a sensation that is not quite there, of course, but enough so that he’s more than aware of the man’s size and girth in the seconds before he manages to fully adjust.

“Shit.” He says again, hearing the curse turn into a wavering moan when he shifts his hips, clenching around Blondie again but...well, this time on purpose, because it feels good to do so and comes with the added bonus of making the man’s breath hitch too. 

He can hear it, he thinks, because of how close he is now, because of how he’d ended up basically lying on top of Levi and pressing him into the bedding again after he’d gradually pushed him forward. Right then, almost all of his weight is on him and he can feel the way he exhales hard and hot over the back of his neck — right before he thrusts once, gently and carefully, and all Levi knows then is the sudden burst of pleasure that lights up all of his nerves as a result. 

“God...you feel so good.” He hears Blondie say into his ear, though, sounding like he’s barely holding back a groan himself before he drops his face against Levi’s neck and blessedly keeps going. “Fuck—

Levi makes a needy sound in response to that and just tries to move back against him, moaning low once, twice, and then again and again as they almost instantaneously fall into an easy, steady rhythm that has Levi’s jaw going slack within seconds. It doesn’t matter that they’d only just started, he thinks, because already the friction feels fucking  _ spectacular _ , and even though he has certain needs, he’s not necessarily in a hurry for this to be over now that the man is finally inside him. No, it’s been so long that he’s happy to take the time to relish in the smooth, slick slide of Blondie’s cock in and out of him, as well as the way that his hips feel knocking up against his ass and how tightly they’re pressed together when he pauses his thrusts to just suddenly grind down.

Because of that, their pace is rather slow at first — something that the man seems fine with too, as he’s dedicated at least half of his energy to pressing warm, earnest kisses all over Levi’s back, shoulders, and neck while he fucks him — but it’s inevitable that they both gradually grow more and more excited as they continue to move together. Unsurprisingly, it’s Levi who starts to moan louder and feel the need to quicken it up first, probably because he shifts his hips in just the right way and ends up finding an angle that is fucking amazing for him. It’s so good for a bit, in fact, that his toes curl and he loses himself enough so that he doesn’t realize how noisy he’s being, although that certainly doesn’t change when it apparently makes Blondie’s blood start to boil so much that he begins to thrust faster.

He goes harder too, Levi feels, and suddenly groans — the first  _ real _ sound he’s made, and a deep one that seems to reverberate right through Levi’s body — pushing himself off Levi next so that he’s back up on his knees. Like that, he grabs Levi’s waist and holds onto it while continuing to thrust with his hips, panting harder and heavier now and looking like he’s deep in concentration when Levi manages a look back at him. His brows are drawn down, Levi sees, and he’s just staring at where he’s fucking him, all while Levi rocks back against him eagerly after digging his own knees into the mattress. He moans more and feels the man’s skin hitting him harder as a result, and  _ god, _ he thinks then,  _ fuck,  _ the friction feels so fucking  _ good _ , and by then, the pleasure has already started to build into something that he cannot ignore.

“Harder.” He gasps then, barely even realizing what he’s saying, however, because he’s almost just too far gone. 

He’s not that close to coming yet, not really, but all he knows is the heat in his belly and the fact that he wants, needs,  _ craves _ to feel the man lose control before this is all over with  _ —  _ something that Blondie has decided not to put off for any longer too, because he does not hesitate to give Levi exactly what he wants. No, instead he just digs his fingers into his skin and huffs loudly as he immediately increases the pace, appearing to even clench his jaw while he begins to fuck Levi so hard and so fast that the mattress starts to squeak noisily beneath them. Naturally, Levi can barely even hear it over the sound of his own cries though, moans which seem to tear from his throat every time the man thrusts forward inside him.   

“Fuck...” He lets out then, hearing and feeling Blondie’s hips smack up against his ass even as he jerks Levi backward himself. It’s rough, and unrelenting, and honestly glorious, and because Levi knows that neither one of them is going to be able to last much longer like this, he finds that he can’t stop babbling to egg the man on even further. “Fuck,  _ harder. _ Fuck me harder, come on,  _ ah— _

Levi’s words are cut off when the man suddenly jerks him backward so hard that he ends up fully on his elbows along with his knees, up off the bed and rendered silent for a moment because his cock had lodged somewhere deep enough to make him see stars. He lets out a choked off sound and clenches around him and then whimpers when he starts moving again, reaching out on his own all of a sudden when his raised view of the bed brings the low headboard right in front of his eyes. He grabs it almost on instinct, needing something to hold onto, and shit, he ends up bracing himself against the man’s powerful thrusts, thinking that it’s good, so, so  _ so _ , fucking  _ good  _ and satisfying and amazing that ludicrously, in that moment, he finds himself wondering why the fuck he hadn’t listened to Petra sooner. 

Why had he ignored her, and deprived himself of this all that time when he could’ve been getting laid? Because he’s an idiot, he thinks then, and had forgotten how great it can be — although truly, this may be one of the best lays he’s had in his entire life and it isn’t even over yet. He doesn’t want it to end, he thinks, but of course, that is inevitable, and at this pace and the rough, unrelenting stimulation, the pleasure and the heat in his groin and the tightness of his muscles have already started to overwhelm him. His thighs are shaking and his arms burn from the effort that it takes to hold himself up like this, and as the man pounds into him, he can no longer put his approaching orgasm off or begin to hold it back. 

“Fuck!” He moans then, hearing his voice tremble as he lets go of the headboard with one hand, falling back down onto an elbow before reaching between his legs to start jerking himself off. He does so desperately, making so much noise that it almost drowns out the sound of their skin slapping together, gasping and groaning and urging Blondie on even though he doesn’t even know what he’s saying. “Fuck, fuck...like that, like  _ that, _ ah...don’t stop, shit, I’m gonna fucking come, sh—

As he’d warned, Levi comes suddenly, so hard that his words are cut off with a strangled sob, and he spills onto the sheets beneath him so forcefully that it surely would’ve reached his chin had he been on his back. The pleasure from his orgasm is so intense too that he can’t hold himself up on his knees anymore, and although he doesn’t fully realize it, he ends up like he’d been when they’d started: nearly pressed down into the mattress with his face in a pillow even as he works to milk himself dry. His hips can only twitch weakly towards his hand after several long seconds though, and despite the fact that he feels so much  _ bliss _ for a few moments that he can’t really comprehend it, he notices that the man slows down, pulls out, and practically tears the condom off so that he can start frantically jerking his own cock off too. 

Hearing him, Levi grunts and looks over his shoulder and finds what he thinks to be a positively delicious sight — one that has Blondie sweaty, flushed, and tense right before his eyes, sitting on his knees with one hand on Levi’s back while he touches himself. He’s seconds away from coming too, Levi can tell, because the tension in his muscle is obvious, and his eyes are screwed shut so tightly that it looks like he could be in pain. Before Levi can fully fathom what the man intends to do, though, he opens his lids at the last second and lets his chin fall onto his chest, making a choked off stuttered sound, and then exhaling forcefully as his cock spurts thin ropes of white all over Levi’s fucking ass cheeks. 

He visibly shudders while he does so, Levi sees, and he just stares at what he’d done, while Levi, on the other hand, feels his eyes widen, as...well, he hadn’t been expecting that or been fully prepared for it, but whatever. It’s not like he cares — actually, he feels quite satisfied by the act, for whatever reason — and even if he did, he still can’t really think straight enough to say anything. Right then, he’s still struggling to breathe from the exertion of his own orgasm, and so he just slumps against the bed completely spent, uncaring about the mess that is now all over both his front and back while the man practically collapses for the same reasons onto his side nearby him. 

For at least 5 or so minutes, they just lie like that, catching their breath and enjoying the warm, residual pleasure fading from their bodies, until the man lifts a hand, moving to very carefully brush a few strands of Levi’s damp bangs out of his face. Levi, who’d had his eyes closed, opens them then, just in time for Blondie to partially roll over, throw a hand out to grip Levi’s thigh, and lean over the top half of his body so that he can abruptly kiss him. Suddenly, Levi is basically in his arms and pressed up against him again, although he doesn’t mind, because the kiss is well....passionate, and overwhelming enough to take his breath away. 

Somehow, too, it’s more gentle and tender than the hungry, rough making out that they’d been doing before, and Levi can’t deny that it makes his heart pound for a reason other than just lust. Still, that doesn’t mean all his arousal is gone, because it’s not, as the man has already started to stoke the proverbial coals of lust in his belly back to life just from this, and he finds himself sliding an arm over his shoulders and then his thigh around his waist carefully.

“Well.” Blondie murmurs then, after pulling away so that he can look down into Levi’s eyes. “How was it? Did I fuck you so good that you can’t remember your own name?”

At that, Levi bites his lip while Blondie smiles. He’s teasing him, Levi can tell, but it’s a question that he seriously considers, lowering his gaze to the man’s chest and back up again, sort of pretending to think about it even though he had  _ definitely  _ fucked Levi good. He hadn’t disappointed him at all, he knows, but is he completely satisfied? No, because he has not forgotten his resolve to try and make the most out of his spontaneous evening with his hook-up. For that reason, he aims to tease him back, licking his lips while he rubs at his shoulders and feels his stomach start to flutter all over again with excitement. 

“Hm…” He hums then, giving the man what he hopes is a sultry look before he plants a quick kiss to the corner of his mouth. “Not quite, handsome.”

“Not quite? Does that mean I was close?”

“Yeah. Sort of. Pretty close. Maybe you should try that shit again, and you’ll have better luck this time.”

“Again?” Blondie murmurs with a chuckle. Raising his brows, he grabs at the thigh Levi holds around him and rubs his hand up and down that and his side slowly, pausing just long enough for Levi to see a flash of something heated dance across his eyes. “But you’ve only just caught your breath. Don’t you need to stop to rest?”

“Do you?”

The answer to that is apparently no  _ —  _ just as it is with Levi, although he suspects that Blondie knew that and had only been taunting him with the question  _ —  _ for in response, he just plants their lips together eagerly after Levi speaks, and all but grins into the kiss, rolling back on top of him for things that  _ eventually  _ lead to round two. Of course, it takes some time for them to both be ready again because they obviously aren’t 18 years old, but Levi finds that its less than he would’ve thought, perhaps because he’s just enjoying this  _ so much _ and is too excited, and Blondie feels the exact same way. Even after that, he thinks, there’s a round three some time later and then almost even a four — right before they realize there’s no more condoms and decide they’re both finally way too exhausted anyway. 

Besides, at that point it’s probably nearing 3:00 in the fucking morning, and because both the second and third times Blondie had fucked him were just as amazing and satisfying to Levi as the first, he basically fucking passes out, falling asleep curled up against the man’s chest while he gently strokes Levi’s hair. The gesture is rather nice, he thinks, and sweet even though he’s sure this is just a hook-up, although he can’t deny that he feels something warm stir inside him in just the slightest when he hears Blondie’s heart beating underneath his ear. He cuddles closer then, almost unconsciously, and the sensation of the man tightening his arms around him is the last thing he recalls until morning, when he wakes up to the sound of someone knocking loudly on the hotel room door.

Stirring slightly, he’s barely conscious when he hears it being answered by a person who talks in a deep voice — the man he’d slept with, he realizes, after a second where he doesn’t really remember where the fuck he is or what he’d done — and comes to the very sleepy conclusion that the person on the other side must be delivering room service. Had Blondie ordered it? That’d be nice of him, but what time is it, though? Clearly, it’s daytime because he can tell from the types of city sounds he hears outside, but how early? He can’t know without moving to look, but because he still feels exhausted and hasn’t even cracked his eyes open yet or shifted a single inch at all, he isn’t sure that he wants to — not when he’s warm and cozy from where he’s bundled all up in the blankets. 

Still, the noise of the room service cart being rolled into the room keeps him from drifting off again, and he notes that he smells bacon, right before a cell phone suddenly rings and the man who had just fucked him all night answers it. 

“Erwin Smith.” He says matter-of-factly, to which Levi, still in that space between sleep and complete wakefulness, doesn’t realize the significance of for a very long, very silent and still moment.

Then, though, something in his mind manages to snap him out of his stupor, and he feels his brows draw down and his eyelids fly open — right before he starts to stare at the wall across from him in confusion. Behind him, the man is shutting the door on the employee who had presumably brought the food and thanking him for his service, all while also having a very business-like conversation over the phone in the hallway. He can’t hear him that well now, however, and Levi wonders if he’d understood him right. Had he just said...was he  _ really _ ...did he answer the phone with the words  _ ‘Erwin Smith? _ ’

Oh  _ fuck.  _ Levi thinks then, as his eyes widen into the size of fucking saucers while he feels a surge of panic. Suddenly, too, he’s fully awake because what he’d just heard has finally managed to sink in all the way, but that...well,  _ shit, _ this can only mean that he—

No. No, no, no,  _ no, _ there’s no fucking  _ way _ . He  _ couldn’t  _ have just slept with Erwin Smith — the man was older, right? A wealthy, successful businessman, and not someone seemingly his own age or that goddamn handsome? Of course, it occurs to Levi then that he’d actually had no fucking idea what Erwin Smith had looked like before that night, and that his assumptions of such were based on his own imagination and what he’d suspected him to be because of the things he’d heard from his mother. He hadn’t thought when he’d first seen this man at all the night before that the  _ owner of Smith Industries  _ could be his identity, but...is it the same Erwin Smith? What if it’s not? Could this just be a guy who happens to have his name, and is not the same sleazy asshole who his mother has a years long ongoing feud with?

The notion is ridiculous and Levi knows he’s wrong, but he just doesn’t want to believe it. Unfortunately, however, he’s forced to and can no longer deny the fucking mess he’s apparently gotten himself into when he shifts his head to glimpse the contents of the man’s pockets, now deposited on the table near Levi’s side of the bed so that he can clearly see a wallet, keys, and a silver business card holder — one emblazoned with a logo that looks awfully fucking familiar. Carefully, quietly, while the man continues to talk on the phone behind him on the other side of the room and around a corner, Levi reaches out to place two fingers on it so he can slide the thing a bit closer, lifting his head in just the slightest so that he can confirm what he already knows: the logo is that of Smith Industries, Inc., and Levi has just spent a very pleasurable, wild night with it’s wealthy president and CEO.

_ Shit _ . He thinks again, as the panic  _ really  _ starts to set in. Shit, shit, shit,  _ fuck _ , shit, fuck, how could he have let this happen? How could he have been so goddamn  _ stupid?  _ Why hadn’t he just asked the man’s fucking name the night before, instead of assuming that it didn’t matter and that he was some random guy who he’d never see again after? He couldn’t have been a business owner, Levi recalls thinking, because he hadn’t seen him on stage, but of _ course,  _ he hadn’t seen Erwin fucking Smith on stage either, because the bastard had made his massive donation before the fundraiser had even started, pissing Levi off and sending his stress levels skyrocketing because of what he’d known it had meant for his mother’s business — or at least, his mother, who would make everything about that and how it had  _ embarrassed  _ them for days. 

_ Fuck, _ he thinks then, at the thought of Kuchel. She was — if she were to ever find out about this, anyway —  _ absolutely _ going to fucking kill him. 

At that point, Levi is torn from his thoughts by the sound of Erwin Smith clearing his throat, something that Levi picks up on along with the fact that he’s no longer talking on his phone. Apparently, he’d ended his conversation while Levi was discovering how doomed he was and walked back over to stand at the foot of the bed, and spotted Levi half sitting up with his hand on his business card holder. It must look odd, he knows, and like he’s snooping, but what the fuck does it matter? He doesn’t give a shit when he’s just found out who he’d slept with, and there’s no way in hell he’s not going to address it. Besides, he thinks, because he is not yet entirely sure of what this means or exactly how this had happened, there is at least one more very, very,  _ very  _ important question that he needs to know the answer to first.

“You…” He starts, swallowing before he rolls onto his back to face Smith. “You’re, uh...uh—

Irritatingly enough, Levi cuts himself off when his eyes land on the man, when he’s struck all over again by how fucking  _ hot  _ he is — particularly now, when he’s dressed in nothing but a white robe that reveals portions of his legs and chest. He has mussed hair from their activities and is standing by the cart of food looking a bit confused, and it’s hard for Levi to remember what he’d been about to say when suddenly  _ everything  _ that had happened the night before comes back to him in full force. He recalls Smith’s gorgeous, full lips on his skin, he thinks, and his big hands holding onto his waist, as well as the massive cock now hidden beneath his robe that had fucked him just as good as he had fucking hoped. 

What a goddamn shame, he thinks then, that it belongs to a man who is supposedly such an asshole. Is he, though? He had certainly not acted like one last night, but then again, Levi is sure that it will depend on the way he answers his fucking question.

“I…ordered room service.” He says then, knocking Levi back to his senses so that he can actually prepare to ask it again. “Are you hungry?”

“You’re Erwin Smith.” Levi pronounces then, ignoring what Smith had asked  _ him _ , and watching very, very carefully to see what his response will be. 

At the moment, his expression is unreadable, but the pause before he answers and the way that he looks Levi over carefully makes him raise a very suspicious eyebrow.

“...Yes.”

“And do you know who I am?” 

That query seems to suck all of the air out of the room. Suddenly, Smith’s brows are drawn down, and although he opens his mouth to answer him, it takes more than a few seconds before he actually speaks. 

“...Levi Ackerman.” He finally says though, uttering Levi’s name in a voice that would have certainly caused him to bend right over onto his hands and knees all over again if he wasn’t so...well, so fucking  _ furious  _ all of a sudden, because that is the response that he’d really, really hoped he wouldn’t have to actually hear. 

Smith knew who he was. He’d already known downstairs when he’d sidled up to him at the fucking bar, and did not even bother to make sure that Levi knew  _ his  _ name when they’d started flirting. Worse than that, he’d let Levi believe that he was just some random guy the entire rest of the night too, including when he’d been taking a very horny Levi upstairs to fuck his brains out. What the fuck?  _ What the fuck? _ Considering who they both are and what goes on between their businesses, Levi is pretty sure his name would have been some goddamn pertinent information before they started making out and groping at each other. However, it’s also because of what goes on between their businesses  _ exactly  _ that he already feels like he knows  _ why  _ Smith had done it, suspecting without any sort of doubt in his mind that he’d slept with him,  _ seduced  _ his business rival’s  _ son _ , in an obvious attempt to get an in so that Kuchel would sell him Ackerman Securities, LLC. 

There’s no other reason Levi can think of for this bullshit — especially when he’d already heard a million times from his mother about what a bastard this guy was. Of course, he’d been skeptical at times and usually had only felt a minor irritation for Smith who he had never met himself, but now he understands and believes it for sure, because he’d just proven himself to be every single awful, disgusting thing that Kuchel had ever claimed him to be and more.  _ “He’ll do anything to get what he wants,”  _ he recalls her saying once in particular, _ “even if it’s something _ dirty.”  

“You son of a bitch.” He says then, clenching his fists into the bedding in absolute  _ rage _ . “You rat bastard. You fucking  _ asshole!” _

Levi does not wait for Smith to respond. Instead, he moves instantly to climb off the bed, pulling the comforter around him — this fucker will never see him naked _again,_ he thinks — and jerking it off the mattress so hard that it shifts on top of the box spring. Then, he nearly stumbles in his sudden hurry to move around it so that he can find all his clothing, as the only thing he wants to do now is get the hell out of there so he never has to look at this slimy motherfucking piece of shit again.

Infuriatingly enough, however, it becomes apparent that Smith is not even going to own up to his own bullshit, as the glimpse Levi gets of him is one of a slightly confused man who is holding his hands up in defense. 

“Levi, wait…” He starts, at least having the decency to back away when Levi gets near him while dragging an entire king sized comforter in his wake, unfortunately and sickeningly finding that he has to do so in an effort to pick up the pieces of his tux — pieces which are scattered all around the floor from where Smith had tossed them and lying in a sort of tell-tale trail coming from the doorway. With every bit of clothing he sees, he has to bend, grab, stand, and walk a foot or two toward the other one before repeating the motion, and it takes long enough that it just adds to the feelings of humiliation and fury that have taken over his mind. He looks goddamn ridiculous, he knows, and there’s no way in hell he’s going to listen to  _ anything  _ else that comes out of Smith’s lying ass mouth. “What’s wrong? Why are y—

_ “Shut the fuck up!  _ Don’t play innocent, you piece of shit! Did you really just think you were going to fuck me once and I’d go convince my mom to sell you our company? Your dick wasn’t even close to being that good,  _ idiot!” _

_ “What? _ Levi, no, no, you’ve got the wrong idea! I—

Levi cuts Smith off by finally reaching his goal — the bathroom — and slamming the door behind him so hard that it rattles everything lying on the counter. Immediately, he drops the bedding he’d dragged in too and his armful of clothing so that he can start pulling it on, but unfortunately, finds himself sliding down the wall onto the floor instead so that he can put his head in his hands, now feeling overwhelmed by every single ounce of embarrassment and shame that he’d mostly held back while outside. He couldn’t let that bastard see it, he’d thought instinctively, he  _ wouldn’t _ , but now that he was alone, it welled up uncontrollably because of the knowledge that he’d just gotten  _ played.  _

How could he have been so stupid, he thinks again? How could he have been so  _ foolish?  _ He’d been blinded by Smith’s good looks and charm, he recalls, and the fact that he’d just wanted a break from the bullshit and to have a fun time. Now, the realization that his ‘fun time’ had been with a guy who’d just been using him for his own gain means it has all been ruined, and he should have just fucking known better. He should’ve listened to his instincts when he’d wondered why a man like that would want to sleep with him in the first place, or figured out that it was all bullshit when he had paid him so much attention and kept calling him beautiful like he’d meant it. 

Obviously, that had all been a lie and he’d just been laying it on thick to fucking seduce him, Levi thinks then, which is a realization that hurts in a different way than him just simply being pissed. Whatever, though. He wouldn’t have even ended up in this situation at all if he’d just stuck with the argument that he’d always used with Petra — that he didn’t need to get laid and he didn’t want to bother — and gone home, because he’d just gotten too fucking carried away and apparently lost  _ all  _ of his fucking senses. Even as out of his mind horny as he’d been, though, if only he’d just paid a little attention to his surroundings than he  _ might _ have realized he wasn’t exactly sleeping with a random guy. Indeed, the hotel they stayed at is expensive to begin with, he knows, and the breakfast that had been ordered looked incredibly large and fancy.

Making it even more obvious that the man he’d slept with is very wealthy is the fact that the room he’d rented itself is...well, the goddamn  _ penthouse _ too, because it’s huge, and Levi had not missed that they were at the very top of the building when he’d gotten out of bed and seen through the window. The elevator ride would have been long but he’d been too busy shoving his tongue down Smith’s throat to realize it, and he just feels so stupid about how wildly he’d behaved when it had all been nothing but a goddamn farce. He almost wants to cry, actually, but he won’t do that. No, instead he will go home and try to forget that this ever happened — although he’s concerned that Smith won’t let him. 

What if he tells his mother? Levi can’t think of a reason why he would do that, especially since that would be a very mortifying conversation for him too, but if he did, the embarrassment he feels would become twofold as she would undoubtedly be very, very disappointed and upset. She hates Smith so much that it’s not even funny, and he can imagine that she wouldn’t like to know that her son had slept with him on the night of the fundraiser that, likely according to her, Smith completely humiliated and ruined them at. Of course, their company wasn’t the only thing that Smith had humiliated and ruined, and Levi cannot believe what a sleazy, unscrupulous, scummy asshole that he actually really is. 

The fact that he’d thought this might even work is almost even more ridiculous, though, because seriously? What, did he think that Levi would just never find out his name? If that was the case, then why did he leave his wallet and shit right there where he could see it? There’s no way he’s that stupid, Levi thinks, so he must just be so fucking arrogant that he’d assumed Levi wouldn’t care, that the dicking he’d given him was so good or something that it wouldn’t bother Levi that he’d been a slimeball to his mother, and now to him too. 

_ Well, _ he desperately tries to tell himself. It fucking  _ wasn’t _ , as he’s had dildos that have made him come more and in a far less amount of time. Ignoring the fact that such a thing isn’t really a fair comparison — dildos don’t have a refractory period, and real cocks cannot vibrate — Levi swallows down his chagrin and stands up again, muttering curses under his breath as he hurriedly starts to get dressed. Of course, he only goes so far as to put his pants and shirt on before he splashes his face with water, and then tries to straighten his hair, which is sticking up ridiculously because of all the product he’d had to put into it the night before. Unfortunately, he pretty much fails to make it look normal, and ends up just swearing loudly again as he gathers the rest of his suit, braces himself, and opens the door. 

Immediately, he stops, because infuriatingly enough, Smith is standing right outside of it with his hand raised, like he’d been about to knock. What the fuck, Levi thinks? Does he really think that he gives a shit about anything he has to say, especially when he has a feeling that it will just be a bunch of goddamn excuses?

“Levi.” Smith says then, looking him over in a way that makes Levi narrow his eyes. “You’ve got this all wrong. I wasn’t trying to—

“Fuck off!” Levi interrupts, shoving past Smith none to gently so that he can head for the entryway. 

“No, wait, I—

“I don’t want to hear it, asshole! You don’t need to even bother trying to explain anything, because as far as I’m concerned, everything that comes out of your shitty, disgusting mouth is a lie. Do not ever, fucking  _ ever _ , contact me again, got it?!”

With that, Levi — who had stopped to shout with his hand on the doorknob — flings open the door itself so that he can step out into the hallway. He slams it behind him without waiting for an answer, and stalks down the hall as fast as he can, half afraid that Smith is going to follow him so that he can continue to try to convince Levi that he’s not a piece of shit. If he does, Levi thinks, he’s going to fucking punch him square in that goddamn handsome jaw of his and then probably get arrested, but thankfully, Smith doesn’t come out and Levi doesn’t get the cops called on him, and he makes it down the elevator, out of the building, and into a cab without being bothered. 

At that point, he slides down into the seat and turns on his phone, absolutely dreading what he knows will probably be a million fucking messages from his mother. She’s going to be pissed, he thinks, that he’d gone MIA, but somehow, miraculously enough, all he has is a single text — one that was sent at 11:30 PM the night before and is written in the opposite tone from what he had expected. 

_ Petra told me what happened, sweetheart, and I’m sorry you’re sick. _ It reads _. I just wanted to let you know not to worry about anything; she filled me in on the banquet and it’s alright. I’m proud of you for handling it, and you did a good job. We’ll just talk about it when the food poisoning clears up, okay? Let me know if you need anything, and I’ll take care of it. _

Immediately upon reading that, Levi’s negative emotions are temporarily swept away by an overwhelming appreciation for Petra. She’d covered for him, he realizes then, and told his mother that he’d gotten food poisoning to explain his prolonged silence, which is honestly a huge fucking relief right then, because that meant that he wouldn’t have to talk to  _ her _ until Monday. Petra, though, is another story, because the next thing he knew he had to do was call her. He hates to bother her with his bullshit on a Saturday, but...well, she’s very, very good at damage control, and he has no idea what he is supposed to do next. At least she’s probably already waiting with bated breath to hear from him, he thinks, although it’s too bad that her happiness about him getting laid is about to be ruined by the man he’d foolishly slept with. 

“Petra.” He says to her in the cab, after she picks up the phone with a very inquisitive hello. “We need to talk.”

“I’ll say. What happened last night, Levi?  _ Please _ tell me that you got laid.” Is her predictable, joyfully uttered response, one that makes Levi grimace even though he’d known it was coming.

“Yeah.” He admits. “Yeah...yeah, but there's a problem. A  _ big  _ problem. I don’t wanna talk about it over the phone and I’m in a cab; can we meet up somewhere?”

Petra, whose giggles have been stymied for now, agrees to meet him for brunch at a place near her apartment in about an hour and a half — which is just enough time for him to go home and scrub himself clean of that  _ pig’s _ filthy touch. He does so, furiously and in a fit that is honestly fueled by anxiety, and made even worse by the fact that he finds bruises on his hips from Smith’s fingers, as well as plenty of marks on his skin from the motherfucker’s mouth. Most are on his thighs, thankfully, he  _ guesses _ , but there’s definitely two small ones on his throat which piss him off further, although it looks like they’re low enough that he’ll be able to hide them with a shirt collar. 

Washing himself with a loofa until his skin becomes bright red — particularly on his ass, because he remembers how Smith had purposefully come all over it and feels grossed out, and  _ degraded  _ — he shampoos his hair too, and shaves, and dresses in a button-up and jeans to go meet Petra. He rolls up the sleeves to be more comfortable and grabs a pair of sunglasses, and thinks in the cab that he definitely does feel slightly calmer and less panicked after the shower, but in  _ desperate  _ need of a drink — one that he plans on having in the form of several pitchers of mimosas once he arrives at the restaurant. When he does, he looks around for Petra and spots her at a table under a canopy on the sidewalk, and makes a beeline inside the place and back out so that he can sit down on the metal chair across from her. 

He does so,  _ hard _ , too hard, hard enough so that he winces because his fucking ass is fucking sore after how thoroughly it had been used not even twelve hours ago — something that he knows is made worse because of how long it had been since he’d last done anything like that, which  _ would _ have been satisfying if the cock who had done it to him belonged to literally anyone else. He’d been trying to ignore it until then, but of course, Petra, who is wearing a sunhat, huge sunglasses, and a dress, notices right away and snorts so hard that Levi is surprised champagne and orange juice don’t shoot out of her nose. Still, though, she does start coughing afterward and covers her mouth before taking off her sunglasses, revealing wide eyes that accompany a genuinely happy and amused smile. 

“Well.” She states, while Levi tosses his own glasses aside and pours himself a drink from mimosa pitcher that Petra had blessedly already obtained. “I guess that answers my question about what happened last night. What’s that on your neck?”

Immediately, Levi sighs. Of course the hickeys had not escaped her notice, even though he had starched his damned collar and taken the time to position it purposefully over the marks. “What the fuck do you think they are?”

“Hickeys.”

“Yeah, Petra, they’re hickeys. And my ass hurts because I got fucked hard three times in as many hours.”

Petra’s glee is unmistakable, and while he does hesitate for a moment about giving her these details — he’s private, and his first instinct is to clam up — she’s his best friend, and he knows that he can trust her. “Oh my god, Levi! I’m  _ so glad!  _ Did he have a big dick?”

“...yeah.”

“Like, how big?”

Levi, begrudgingly, raises his hands to give Petra an estimate at that, moving them apart as if he’s showing her the size of a fucking fish he’d just caught rather than a stupid  _ penis. _ Right away, she gasps, and he has to admit, even though this is still a huge fucking problem, talking to her and having this ridiculous conversation  _ does  _ seem cheer him up just a bit.

“Holy shit. No wonder you’re sore. So what’s the issue, then?”

Here, Levi pauses, and frowns down at the table before taking a huge drink of his mimosa. He knows he has to tell her, and he needs to, but thinking about it makes him feel like an idiot again, and it’s never been easy for him to admit when he’s been played for a fool. 

“The fucking problem is…” He starts, biting his lip and trying to figure out how best to even say it. “I...uh, that guy…”

“Yeah, he was hot. Did you find out his name? Are you going to see him again?”

“No!  _ No, _ fuck no.” Levi exclaims, running a quick hand over his hair before...well, before he sighs loudly, and decides to just spit it out. “I’m not seeing him again. I can’t. That guy...that fucking guy is Erwin Smith.”

“...what?”

“Erwin Smith! The asshole who my mom hates so much, who—

“Yeah, I know who he is, but _ really? That  _ was Erwin Smith?!”

Levi stares at Petra, who is looking back at him in bewilderment with her jaw hanging open, and then nods, immediately moving afterward to pour himself another mimosa. Taking a drink of it while Petra covers her mouth with a hand again, he looks around, hoping to spot a server so that he can order another pitcher. This one is already getting low, and he’s going to need a lot more alcohol to get through this goddamn conversation. 

“Oh my god…” Petra says then, muttering the words behind her palm, eyes wide. “Oh my god. Oh my fucking god, Levi…are you sure?”

“Yeah. Unfortunately.”

“ _ Oh my god.” _

“I know. It’s bullshit!”

“Well...I mean, did he not tell you his name before...before you—

“No, and I didn’t ask. I thought he was just some random guy, because I didn’t see him on stage! I didn’t think it mattered, and I just wanted to get laid, and then I hear him answer his phone this morning with his name while I’m still half asleep and end up losing my fucking shit.”

“Did he know who you were?”

“He did! He fucking told me he did, because I asked him this morning! Can you  _ believe  _ that piece of shit?! All that time, he didn’t tell me, because I guess he thought if he got in good enough with me that I’d convince my mother to sell him the company. He’s such a fucking bastard, just like she always said, and—

“Wait...what?” Petra interrupts, lowering her hands and looking confused. Before Levi can answer or she can continue, the server finally comes around to take Levi’s order. First, he asks for two more pitchers of mimosas and a very large margarita. Then, he requests the first several things on the menu that he sees because he’s fucking starving from all the strenuous activity he’d taken place in the night before — bananas foster french toast, some fancy eggs benedict with spinach and a mountain of bacon on top, and a hamburger. On the side, he gets hashbrowns, and Petra waits until the person has gone before speaking up again. “Do you really think that’s why? That seems like it’d be kind of a stupid plan...”

“I know! It fucking is, because there’s no way in hell it would ever work. I’m not going to give up everything and ignore what a fucking asshole he is just because he has a big dick!”

“Yeah, but like, don’t you think he would’ve known that already? He’s supposed to be pretty smart, and that seems like a reach.”

“No, Petra, it’s not a fucking reach, because he’s an arrogant, scum ridden, piece of shit. Why else would he not tell me his name if he already knew who I was?”

At that, Petra pauses her inquiries of disbelief to think — which Levi doesn’t understand, because it's so obvious — and apparently has to admit that Levi has a point, although he already fucking knew that. “Yeah. I dunno. It does seem pretty shady. If he knew who you were, it’s weird that he didn’t say anything.”

“That’s what I’m fucking saying. He had to know what he was doing when he came over there, and he definitely knew I wouldn’t fuck him if I knew who he was.”

“Well...you did fuck him.” 

Apparently, Petra can’t contain herself any longer. She starts laughing and lets her head fall back, and Levi sighs and drinks more alcohol. “Yeah. I did. Thanks for reminding me.”

“Was it good?”

Levi makes a face; what does  _ that  _ fucking matter? At this point, it doesn’t, although honestly, he’s more irritated about the question because the last thing he wants to do is admit the truth, that it  _ was _ good, and that he had actually enjoyed the pounding he’d gotten very, very much.

“It was, wasn’t it?” Petra continues with a smirk, though, seeing right through his silence. 

“So the fuck what?” He confesses, shaking his head. “It’s never, ever going to happen again, because the only thing I’m going to do if I see that shithead again is punch him right in his smug face. I just feel like a fucking idiot, Petra, I should’ve—

“You’re not an idiot, Levi, you didn’t know.”

“Yeah, but I should’ve been more careful. I should’ve thought to ask his name, or I dunno, maybe not left all of my fucking brain cells in the car with Oluo.”

“Well, for what it’s worth, I’m sorry I encouraged you. He seemed like a nice guy, and I just wanted you to have some fun. You’re so tense all the time, and I know you’re unhappy.”

At that, Levi pauses for a long moment, biting his lip. He’s looked away to stare down at the pavement, because the fact that his unhappiness is apparently that obvious makes him...well, even more unhappy. However, none of this is Petra’s fault, and he eventually shakes his head before meeting her eyes again. “You didn’t know either, Petra, so don’t worry about it. You don’t need to apologize. It’s not your fault Erwin Smith is such a fucking bastard that he’d put on an act like that to sleep with his business rival’s  _ son.” _

Petra smiles, but this time half-heartedly. She feels bad, he can tell, for him — but probably mostly because his night hadn’t worked out. Of course, he knows the feeling too. He had enjoyed himself a lot up until he’d learned the truth about his hook-up, and it’s shitty that what he would have remembered positively before and probably jerked off to later, is now ruined because some dick has his eye on his mother’s company. That thought, though, just makes him feel frustrated all over again, because he still needs to figure out what he’s supposed to do, which was what he’d hoped Petra would be able to help him with.

“I don’t even know what the fuck I’m supposed to do now, either.” He continues with that in mind, after taking a while to sip on the margarita that was brought to him during the silence. 

“What do you mean?” Petra asks, raising an eyebrow and appearing to be confused again. “Why would you have to do anything?”

“I dunno, shit, I just know if my mom finds out, she—

“Why would your mom find out? You’re not like...planning to tell her, are you?”

“No! Fuck no, but I don’t trust him. What if he tells her, or tries to use this to manipulate her somehow?”

“I can’t really think of how he could.”

“Me either, but that would pretty much be my worst goddamn nightmare.”

Petra pauses again, thinking. “Well, you can’t know that he’ll do anything. And if he doesn’t, nothing will happen. So I think the easiest and best thing to do for now is just forget about it. You shouldn’t have to see him again anytime soon anyway, right?”

“I don’t think so.” Levi mutters in response, frowning. “I fucking hope not.”

The truth is, he doesn’t really know. He never has any idea what kind of shit his mother is going to throw at him next, and there’s no way he’ll be able to avoid Smith forever, as in, for the rest of his entire goddamn life. The man had been surprisingly young — perhaps only 4 or so years older than Levi — and clearly will not be retiring from Smith Industries, Inc. anytime soon, which means that when his mother leaves  _ their _ company, he probably won’t be able to get out of dealing with the fucker any longer. God, even 10 years from now he thinks he would still feel awkward and be pissed off if he saw him, but there’s nothing he can do about it, except, like Petra said, try to forget about it and move on unless something else happens.

He’s not sure how easy that will be because of how angry he is at just himself and the underlying humiliation he can’t shake off, but whatever. He has to try, although it proves to be hard when he knows he’s going to have to talk to his mother about the fundraiser on Monday. Yeah, he obviously will not mention anything about what actually happened instead of him having food poisoning, but whenever he thinks of the event he’s just going to be reminded of Erwin fucking Smith, and the way that he’d gone and  _ tricked  _ him all over again. For that reason, he’s not in the best mood on Monday morning when he arrives at the office, still rubbing the sleep from his eyes because, of course, he’d woken up late and hadn’t yet had time to drink any tea, much less eat breakfast. 

Thankfully, he has tea he can make in his office and a breakfast bar in one of his drawers, and it’s that which he’s focused on as he rides in the elevator up to the 6th floor and walks down the hall. He carries his messenger bag in one hand and his phone in the other, and ends up nearly dropping both onto the ground when he walks through the door and finds Petra standing behind a gigantic bouquet of flowers that have been placed on a table near his desk. 

“What?” He blurts, eyes wide. “What the fuck is that?”

Unfortunately, he’s pretty sure he already knows the answer to that question, and it’s one that makes his blood pressure fucking skyrocket at 8:15 in the morning: Erwin Smith. The look on Petra’s face pretty much confirms it, and sure enough, after he strides into the room to snatch the card from her hand, he sees the bastard’s name signed at the bottom of a neatly written message.

_ Levi, _ it says,  _ I’m very sorry about what happened the other night. I understand why you’re upset, but it was not my intention to mislead you. I’d like to have a chance to explain myself, if you’ll let me. My number is written on the back of this card, along with my email address. _

“Oh.” Petra says, after Levi turns the damned thing over to confirm. “That’s kind of nice.”

_ “What?  _ He’s fucking lying.” Levi declares, because he  _ knows  _ that he is.

This, he thinks, is just another attempt to manipulate him, to make Levi think that he’s sorry so he won’t lose his chance to get in a good word with his mother, or whatever the fuck he believes this is going to result in. To see that he would seriously go this far, though, that he had not stopped, pisses Levi off so much that he can barely think straight, because seriously? Hadn’t he told Smith to not fucking contact him? He had, he knows, but before he can relay all of this to Petra, Kuchel walks in, carrying a cup of coffee and a folder full of papers that she had apparently come to give to Levi. 

Naturally, she stops as he had when she sees the bouquet — the arrangement is truly massive and full of at least twelve different types of flowers, and Levi knows that it had to have been extremely expensive — but with a different look on her face, one that is simply curious instead of the angry disbelief that Levi had exhibited. 

“Good morning.” She says, eyeing the flowers, and then Levi. “Who are  _ those _ from?”

Instantly, Levi crushes the card he’d been holding in his fist, feeling a brief hint of panic that he  _ somehow  _ manages to hide with a shrug. “The banquet.”

“The banquet?”

“He means the foundation that held the fundraiser.” Petra pipes up, thinking fast and covering for him as always. “They’re sending out flowers to all those who attended and donated this year.”

“Oh...okay. That’s nice then.” Kuchel responds, looking as if she doesn’t quite get it — and he doesn’t blame her, because a charity isn’t going to send out an over the top bouquet that probably cost at least $400 to thank the hundred or so people who had donated — but continuing anyway, probably because she can’t think of any reason why he or Petra would lie.

She certainly doesn’t suspect that the flowers have been sent to her son by her archenemy, at least, and Levi obviously wants to keep it that way, so much so that he brushes off her questions about whether or not he feels better, takes the papers from her, and guides her out of his office as soon as possible. They’re supposed to have a meeting later to discuss the event anyway, he knows, and she can just wait until then to interrogate him about the entire evening.

“God dammit.” He groans though, after shutting the door. “This is fucking shitty, Petra.”

“Do you really think he’s lying? That note sounds pretty sincere.” Petra replies, much to Levi’s chagrin. 

Gnashing his teeth, he tries to remain patient. Petra is a good person and always tries to see the best in people — and she doesn’t want him to be hurt, either — but she hadn’t spent the night with Smith. She hadn’t sat there with him and felt the full force of his bullshit charm, or how easily he’d lied and kept up the ruse the entire night. She certainly hadn’t been tricked into trusting him, and then sleeping with him, and there is nothing in this entire world that will make him believe that Smith isn’t a sleazy, manipulative bastard, especially just by sending him a ridiculously expensive bouquet of flowers. 

_ What _ , he wonders then, is he supposed to be  _ impressed? _

“He’s lying.” Levi says again then, walking back around to sit down at his desk. 

“Well, what if he isn’t?”

“He  _ is.” _

“But these flowers were really expensive.”

“So? He’s fucking loaded, and he probably just got his company to pay for it. Either way, I told him that I didn’t want him to contact me but the bastard is fucking doing it anyway! I don’t want to talk to him, Petra. I just want to forget about it like you said, but how am I supposed to do that if he won’t leave me alone?” 

He says some of that in case Petra was thinking about suggesting that he actually call the number on the back of the card, because never in a million years will he ever fucking do anything like that. In fact, he uncrumples the paper from where he’d still been holding it in his fist, and then rips it into as many tiny pieces as he can before dramatically throwing them all into the trash can. Across the room, Petra watches him for a moment with a thoughtful expression — thankfully, she wasn’t bothered by his small outburst, which is good, because Levi had thought for a moment he’d sounded too harsh — but then sighs, nodding once before her face twists into something hinging on sympathy after she seems to get his point. 

“Yeah. Okay, Levi. Hopefully he won’t do anything else after this.” She says, sensing that Levi doesn’t want to talk about it right now and deciding to get on with the work day. 

Frustratingly enough, she does not take the flowers with her when she leaves his office. 

Because of that, because Levi refuses to even touch them for the moment, they sit there for most of the day, directly in his line of sight with the window and Smith’s high rise office building in the background behind it. Prior to that weekend, the sight had not much bothered him. Now, however, it’s something he notices seemingly every other minute and that reminds him of the awful shit that had happened, and by the time 2:00 has rolled around, he’s had enough. Standing from his chair, he stalks across his office — past the flowers, which he hates to admit smell really good — and approaches the window, glaring at the Smith Industries building in the distance, tall and shiny and now appearing as obnoxious to him as the actual man himself. 

Why had this happened, he thinks? Why had he decided to fuck with  _ him _ , when the person standing in his way is actually his mother? God, though, what if he’d tried that shit on her before, and she’d refused him? Maybe that was why she really hated him as vehemently as she did, because he supposed that would definitely make sense, although the thought that he’d slept with a guy who’d potentially also hit on his mother makes him want to shrivel up and die. It’s weird, and makes him feel more irritated, and so he grabs the curtains and jerks them closed, but not before stopping for a moment to give Smith himself his most eager, double middle finger salute. 

He’s acting like an idiot, he knows, because obviously the man can’t see him, but he’s just pissed off, so much so that he decides touching the flowers is worth it so that he can move them to the top of a bookshelf behind him where he won’t have to see the bouquet. He’d hoped it would help, but the darker lighting in his office from the closed curtains make his mood even worse, although he doesn’t care. Whatever, he thinks. He’d rather work like that than have to stare at that fucker’s big, fancy office building and his bullshit ‘gift,’ and so does so, at least until his mother comes in about an hour later to hand him something and scolds him for closing the curtains.

“Oh, Levi.” She says, clicking her tongue. “You’re going to kill the flowers. They need sunlight; why did you move them all the way over there?”

Kuchel asks him that, but of course, doesn’t seem to really think anything of it, and instead flings the curtains back open and puts the bouquet on the table it had been on before, and spends several minutes rearranging the flowers while Levi just stares at her in disbelief. Once she’s gone, he leans over and puts his head into his arms on his desk, and stays like that for at least 20 minutes until his phone suddenly rings. He takes the call, and somehow manages to finish out the day, but then goes home and collapses onto his bed, feeling exhausted and mentally spent from all of the outright bullshit he’d had to deal with over the past 10 hours.

The nerve of that fucking guy, he thinks, to send him  _ flowers  _ of all things after Levi had told him he never wanted to hear from his bastard ass again. What the hell was wrong with him? Who did that shit? Scummy fucking men, Levi knows,  _ obviously _ , which is exactly what Erwin is since he’d tried to pull that slimy, manipulative trick on him in the first place. As he’d tried to explain to Petra, the bouquet was just an attempt to get Levi on his good side again, because he was probably trying to save what he’d surely thought was a carefully crafted plan after Levi had figured it out, called him up on it, and ruined it. 

Does he think Levi is fucking stupid or something, though? Probably, Levi grouses to himself, because he sure felt like it after falling for Erwin’s bullshit to begin with, which is why he’s so adamant about  _ not  _ doing that again now. It’s also why he’s going to continue to ignore whatever else Erwin may send to him like the flowers, although, he thinks then, he should’ve just chucked them straight into the trash. Why hadn’t he? Well, before he could find the chance to do that his mother had waltzed in and took notice of them, but if he does it the next morning before she gets there then he can just say he took them home. 

That’s what he’ll do, he decides then, and what he does, after making sure to get there extra early before Kuchel makes an appearance. Usually, she gets there around 8:30 or 9:00 AM because she often works late, but Levi doesn’t want to take the chance and arrives at 7:30 AM. He’s tired because he didn’t sleep well, but still determined, and makes a beeline for the stupid flowers as soon as he enters his office. Grabbing them, he then heads toward the nearest break room where the bigger trash cans will be, and grumbles at how the stupid bouquet is so big and tall that he has to hold it with both hands and can barely see over the top of it.

Some of the flowers are tickling his face, in fact, and he tries to blow them away with annoyance, ignoring how good they smell, but still ending up hesitating like a fucking idiot when he reaches the trash. Thankfully, there’s no one in the break room to see him looking at the bouquet and biting his lip, thinking to himself that...well, it  _ is  _ probably one of the most beautiful arrangements he’s ever seen, and the entire thing had certainly been very,  _ very  _ expensive. It seems like a waste to just toss them like this, but then, of course, he remembers where they had come from and who had sent them, and shakes his head before chunking the entire thing — vase, flowers, and all — into the fucking trash.

Scowling, he chides himself for even considering keeping them like that, but blames it on the fact that its way too fucking early for him to be at work. For that reason, he makes some tea in his office and feels better after having a cup, and thankfully his mood is allowed to stay that way, as even after Petra gets there and notices the flowers are gone, she doesn’t say anything, and Levi is relieved that he won’t have to explain himself all over again and waste more of his time talking about Erwin Smith. With luck, Levi thinks, he won’t send him more flowers or try to contact him again either, and he’ll be free to put all of this behind him for hopefully a very, very long time. 

Thankfully, Levi’s wish comes true — or at least it does all the way until the next Thursday morning, over a week and a half later, when he’s hard at work going through some boring ass sales numbers and he gets a fucking email that nearly makes his eyes pop out of his head:

 

> Thurs 11:45 AM
> 
> To:  [ Levi.Ackerman@AckSec.com ](mailto:Levi.Ackerman@AckSec.com)
> 
> From:  [ ESmith@SmithIndustries.com ](mailto:ESmith@SmithIndustries.com)
> 
> Re: I’m sorry.
> 
> Dear Levi,
> 
> I assume you received the flowers I sent you last week, and that from your silence so far, you don’t want to speak to me. I understand why and I respect that, but I just wanted to reach out to you again one more time in the hopes that you might read this and change your mind. As I wrote on the card, I am very, very sorry for what happened between us at the hotel, to the point where I’m not sure I can express exactly how much. I should have told you my name, you’re right about that, but I actually thought, perhaps foolishly, that you might have already known who I was. 
> 
> Regardless, it was not my intent to trick you, or to manipulate your company into doing business with me as you seem to think. When I decided to approach you business was actually the last thing on my mind, as I only wanted to talk. I saw you on stage, and I thought of this as a chance to buy you a drink so that we could do so. Despite that, I flubbed things badly, and I’m aware of that. I should’ve introduced myself first to be safe, and I immensely regret that I didn’t. I haven’t been able to forget about you since that one day in your lobby, and I hate that I ruined what turned out to be our first actual meeting. I didn’t want that, but I can only hope that you believe me, or that you even read this email in the first place so that you won’t hate me. 
> 
> If you’re willing to talk about this more by any chance, I’d like to be able to explain to you further in person as I said on my card. If you aren’t though, or you don’t want that, I understand completely, and I promise that I won’t contact you again if you don’t respond to this message. Again, though, I just want you to know that I’m sorry.
> 
> Please accept my apology,
> 
> Erwin Smith
> 
> President and CEO
> 
> Smith Industries, Inc.

 

_ What the fuck, _ Levi thinks upon reading what he considers to be a bunch of drivel,  _ what the fucking flying fuck was Erwin Smith’s problem?  _ He doesn’t know, but after receiving his email, he is beginning to understand why his mother always complained so much about the bastard being persistent. 

_ Not interested in business my ass.  _ Levi grumbles inside his head then, feeling a strong flash of anger go through him at the fact that Smith has dared to send him an email at all, first after Levi had told him in person not to contact him, and then once he’d clearly chosen to ignore his stupid gift of flowers. Doesn’t he get it? Doesn’t he have any shame at all? Apparently not, Levi thinks, and this time instead of feeling stupid for falling for his bullshit in the first place, Levi is starting to find Smith’s now second attempt to contact him to be a bit insulting.

Again, does he think that Levi is dumb? Does he really believe that  _ Levi _ will believe that all his flowery words, fake ass apologies, and self-deprecating statements are sincere, or that he would think his weird excuses were true? What the fuck is he even talking about, for that matter, when he’d said he hadn’t been able to ‘forget’ about Levi since that day in their lobby? Levi had never met or spoken with Smith prior to the night they’d fucked, much less seen the man before inside of his own damned building. Is that why he’s supposed to believe that Smith had thought he’d already known who he was, instead of just assuming — correctly, he’s sure of — that Smith is just an arrogant asshole and thinks that  _ everyone _ knows who he is?

What a bunch of bullshit, Levi thinks. And here he’d been under the impression that Erwin Smith was supposed to be smart, and some kind of self-made millionaire genius. Is he really, or is he just a master of manipulation and shady trickery? Levi doesn’t know, but if it’s really the genius thing, then perhaps he had missed out on learning about fucking basic ass social cues, and the fact that he’s probably one or two emails away from Levi considering this to be legitimate harassment. Its ridiculous and he’s so livid that he’d actually gotten up to pace around the room, running a hand through his hair anxiously and trying to decide what he should do in response, if anything.

All he wants, he thinks for the umpteenth time, is to forget about his mistake, but it’s impossible when the actual mistake himself won’t leave him alone — although, he has to admit that doing so on his own is proving to be a lot more difficult than he’d fucking thought. Yes, despite the fact that Levi has been  _ trying  _ to get Smith out of his head, he just can’t seem to completely do so, mostly because he can’t forget how good he’d been in bed and how thoroughly he had fucked him. God, it had felt so amazing and satisfying and every time he closes his eyes to go to sleep he sees it all again in his head, unable to stop himself from remembering the absolutely  _ incredible  _ way that Smith had made him feel no matter how hard he tries. His hands and lips and giant fucking dick had basically blown his mind while it had been happening, Levi thinks, and the bastard had looked so gorgeous in the moment too that it just pisses him the hell off. 

He’s a frustratingly perfect specimen of a man that Levi would have been happy to fall into bed with all over again if he hadn’t turned out to be a business rival and a complete asshole, because, in fact, he remembers thinking about that very thing shortly before he’d passed out, wondering if the guy who’d been holding him at the time would want to do all that again. Now, though, that is the last goddamn thing Levi wants to do no matter how often his traitorous body and it’s fucking urges try to tell him otherwise, but the problem is just that he hadn’t slept with anyone in so long that he realizes he’d honestly forgotten how phemonal and stress relieving sex could be, especially with someone who actually knows what they’re doing and ensures that their partner is taken care of. 

Smith had been like that, he hates to admit. He was clearly experienced — or at least very talented — and he’d focused on Levi far more than himself throughout the entire night. He’d felt special, to be honest, but of course he knows that it was all a fucking farce, and it’s ridiculous that he can’t help but wish and want for more to the point that he’d gotten so worked up about it a few nights during the past 12 days that he’d had to jerk off to get rid of a couple of stubborn erections that wouldn’t go away. He’d even dreamed about it too, he recalls with irritation, along with the man who had caused all this lust to rise anew within him in the first place: Erwin Smith, President and CEO of Smith Industries, who’d been nipping along his throat while he moved between his legs and made Levi continually cry out in pleasure. 

The images had been hazy, of course, because it was a dream, but it caused him to wake up with an aching hard-on all the same, and since he’d been lethargic and half asleep he’d had no choice then too but to rut against the bed until he came in his boxers like a fucking teenager.

It’s pathetic though, Levi thinks, and it means that his anger and other bad feelings about what had happened that night are becoming very slow to fade away, particularly because over half of that now is only directed at himself. What the hell is wrong with him, he wonders, to get horny while thinking about a man who had played him for a fool? By all means the thought of falling into bed and getting physical again with Smith should disgust him, but it doesn’t, and he finds it hard to believe that he isn’t actually the moron he doesn’t want to think he is when he can’t convince his body to have any goddamn self-respect. 

Still, though, this is all Smith’s fault to begin with. He’d proven himself to be a scumbag and nothing can make Levi believe otherwise, and even if he can’t stop thinking about when he’d had sex with the guy, his stupid email  _ certainly  _ isn’t helping him to forget about it either. He’s pissed that Smith has contacted him and still bitter and angry that he’d done this to him in the first place, and for that reason, even though it seems counterproductive, he finds himself sitting back down into his seat and slamming the reply button on the man’s email to give him a fucking piece of his mind. Honestly, it’s overdue, because he should’ve cursed him out again after sending the flowers, but whatever. 

His temper had been struck harder that day and he can’t help it, even though he has a feeling deep down that this is just going to make things worse.

 

> Thurs 12:01 PM
> 
> To:  [ ESmith@SmithIndustries.com ](mailto:ESmith@SmithIndustries.com)
> 
> From:  [ Levi.Ackerman@AckSec.com ](mailto:Levi.Ackerman@AckSec.com)
> 
> Re: I’m sorry.
> 
> Dear Shithead:
> 
> Listen up, you fuckwad — your email is BULLSHIT. I don’t care what kinds of excuses you come up with, or how many times you try to give me these stupidass pathetic fucking apologies, I DON’T WANT TO FUCKING HEAR IT. Do you even hear the shit that comes spewing out of your asshole mouth? It’s insulting and I’m not going to fall for it again, so you’re going to have to take your disgusting, lying rat face elsewhere. I already told you NOT to contact me again, and if you do it one more fucking time after this, I’m going to find a BUM and PAY HIM to take a HUGE, MASSIVE SHIT in your front lobby.
> 
> FUCK OFF,
> 
> Levi Ackerman
> 
> Vice President
> 
> Ackerman Securities, LLC.
> 
> P.S. Your stupid flowers are currently rotting at the bottom of our dumpster, bastard. 

 

After angrily typing that — with his fingers flying across the keyboard, pounding down onto them noisily while he glares daggers at the screen as if it were Smith himself — he rereads it quickly for typos and then clicks send, and immediately forwards the email to Petra with the caption “....................................................................”. She is on her lunch break by then, he suspects, but sure enough, she strides back into his office with wide eyes about an hour later, wearing an expression on her face that oddly seems halfway between concern and disbelief. 

“Levi.” She says, having the wherewithal to close the door quietly behind her. “A  _ bum? _ ”

“Yeah. You like that one?” Levi responds, grumbling from where he’s still seated at his desk, irritable and frustrated and  _ hoping _ she’s not about to tell him he shouldn’t have done that. 

She sounds kind of nervous, he thinks then, but for what reason? They have no dealings with Erwin Smith, and he hasn’t done anything that would damage their company or fuck up the business by telling him off in the least.

“Well…” She just says then, though, pausing before she continues and actually causing Levi to snort in very mild amusement. “It’s not any worse than what your mom has probably said to him, I’m sure.”

“Yeah, you’re fucking right. Maybe I should’ve asked her for some more creative insults.”

“Did he...has he responded?”

“Nope.” Again, Levi snorts — although he wouldn’t put it past the guy, it seems that he’d shut Erwin Smith up, hopefully for good. “Thank fucking god. Can you believe this shit though?! He’s such an asshole! Why would he email me thinking that he’d fucking get anywhere after I’d already ignored the flowers? That was over a fucking  _ week  _ ago!”

“I don’t know. Some of the things he said were kind of weird though, don’t you think?”

“Weird? You mean: creepy and stinking of shit?”

“No. It just seems strange that he thought you already knew who he was, and what did he mean about that thing in the lobby?”

At that, Levi sighs, and tips his head back against his chair in frustration. As he does so, Petra approaches to take a seat at the front of his desk, crossing her legs and eyeing him closely once he continues to speak. “He said that because he’s so up his own ass that he thinks everyone knows who he is, Petra.”

“Even if that were true, what happened in the lobby?”

“Fuck if I know! He’s just making shit up, because he thinks I’m an idiot. I’d never seen that bastard in my life until that fucking banquet happened.”

“Are you sure?”

“Am I sure I never saw him? Yeah, I’m pretty sure I would’ve remembered seeing him considering that I’m gay as fuck and I have eyes.”

“Yeah, you’re right about that...plus, he’s kind of your type too.”

_“What?”_ Levi practically sputters then, giving Petra an incredulous look because, well, what the _fuck_ was she talking about? His type? What type? He’s not _that_ predictable, is he? “I don’t have a type, Petra, and even if I did, it wouldn’t be a fucking asshole like Erwin Shithead Smith.”

“It’s not the asshole part I was talking about. I meant the tall, big, and blonde part.” Petra replies, barely looking like she’s containing laughter while Levi clicks his tongue and dramatically shakes his head.

_ “No. _ No, that’s bullshit. And even if it wasn’t, it doesn’t matter because he’s fucking  _ lying.” _

You’re right, I’m sure, but it’s just....weird. If he was trying to convince you he was telling the truth, he could’ve just left that lobby thing out. It sounds so odd, you know?”

Petra’s words are this time just met with a blank stare, and silence, as Levi doesn’t understand her point. What is she trying to tell him, that Smith isn’t fucking lying? No, there’s no way, and even if he wasn’t, why does it matter? It’s not like he wants to  _ date _ the guy or anything, because that thought is laughable for a variety of reasons, so perhaps Petra is trying to make him feel less bad for being made a fool of by attempting to find real meaning behind Erwin Smith’s bullshit.

He appreciates that, but he kind of wishes he could just vent to her without all of the speculating. Normally, it wouldn’t even bother him, but this is just a sore subject, and will probably continue to be until he gets over it, whenever the fuck that will happen. Still, he’s not mad at her, and she seems to realize that she’s just stressing him out more anyway, because she offers him a sheepish smile and then leans over to pat his arm.

“Sorry, Levi.” She says, while he just sighs. “I know you want to forget about it, so don’t listen to me.”

“It’s fine, Petra.” He responds, now feeling slightly bad about the shitty look he’d probably given her — something that causes him to blurt out what he does next, although he more or less actually grumbles it in irritation under his breath. “I had a fucking sex dream about him the other night, so I’m not doing a very good job of that shit anyway.”

Almost instantly, he regrets it, because now Petra’s eyes have gone wide and she’s practically gaping at him in disbelief.  

_ “What?” _

“Yeah, it’s fucking ridiculous! It’s like I hate him, and I don’t want to think about the stupid bastard at all, but I keep remembering that night and I—

“You mean, the night when you fucked?”

“...yes, Petra. The night when we fucked.”

“Well, that’s what happens when you don’t get laid for a thousand years, Levi.”

Rolling his eyes, Levi breathes out a loud, dramatic sigh while Petra laughs, slumping down into his chair even though he knows that she’s exactly right.

“Maybe you should, like, go have sex with someone else.” She continues, causing Levi to make a face in confusion and...well, uncertainty.

“Why?” He asks, while Petra just smiles mischievously.

“To forget about him. I mean, if you’re thinking about sex, then of course you’re going to be thinking about  _ him _ because he’s the last guy you slept with. Maybe if you sleep with someone else, you’ll just think about that guy instead.” 

Levi bites his lip, and considers her words. She has a point, he thinks, but also, he’s pretty sure part of the reason he keeps remembering his night with Smith is because it had been really, really good sex, sex that will be hard to top, and that he sincerely doubts he’ll get lucky enough to experience again anytime soon. Also, going out on  _ purpose _ with the intent to get laid had always been a part of his problem, as doing so sounds like a pain in the ass, particularly when all he ever wants to do after work is go home and collapse onto the couch. He always feels fucking braindead, he thinks, and tries to save the weekends for relaxing and doing chores, and honestly, he knows that the only reason he’d fallen into bed with Smith is because...well, Smith had essentially fallen right into his lap first.

“...you could try Grindr?” Petra suggests then when he doesn’t respond, no doubt because she is reading his mind exactly since she’d tried and failed so many times to get him to go out with her before.

“Grindr…?” Levi mumbles in response though, drawing his brows down because while he’s heard of the app, he’s not entirely sure of how it all works.

Petra explains it to him, and he has to admit that it does sound easier than going out to a gay bar or something like that — particularly since most people are already on there for one thing and he won’t have to deal with much talking or speculative bullshit beforehand. Still, he’s unsure, as the thought of sleeping with someone else honestly doesn’t really sound that appealing to him. He doesn’t feel like he wants that, but he’s also becoming desperate to forget about Smith and to stop being fucking horny over him, and so he tells Petra that he’ll consider it with a sigh and a shrug, perhaps if things get bad enough. Really, though, he doesn’t actually know what ‘bad enough’ entails, because he already goes through a shitty emotional journey full of frustration and annoyance every time his dick twitches when he even thinks about something as small as the man’s cheekbones. 

For that reason, and because he supposes he’s slightly curious as well, he ends up downloading Grindr the next night, on Friday, two weeks after he’d first slept with Smith, after replaying his and Petra’s conversation over in his head a few times. It probably won’t hurt, he thinks, to at least  _ try  _ the app out to see what happens, as he’s certainly not obligated to go out and fuck any men just because he opens it on his goddamn phone. That’s good, because after using it for about 30 minutes and scoping out plenty of hot guys that he  _ might  _ consider having sex with — he even gets a few messages, which kind of surprises him — he just doesn’t feel interested or motivated at all to do anything about it, because none of them are blonde-haired, blue-eyed, and built in the exact same, specific way that Erwin Smith had been.

Petra, he realizes then, may have not been wrong about him having a fucking type. Still, though, admitting that doesn’t do anything to help him at all, because after tossing his phone away to lie back and close his eyes, he just ends up remembering Smith’s big strong hands and soft full lips, unable to  _ not  _ think about how good it had felt when he’d used both to touch and kiss so worshipfully all over his body. He can recall his fingers sliding up the inside of his leg during one of their three rounds, he thinks, tickling his thigh before he leans over to mouth and suck on a nipple. All the while, he’s thrusting into him, moving in response to Levi’s moans and the way he rolls his own hips, and somehow manages to find the right spot that makes his toes curl even in that position too — perhaps because his cock is just so fucking big that it can’t miss it.

At the thought of it, of Smith’s huge, perfect,  _ beautiful  _ dick, Levi lets out a groan from where he’s currently lying on the bed, and then thankfully snaps out of it, turning the sound into an angry curse when he realizes he’d gotten lost in his memories again. Now, he has half a hard-on but he refuses to masturbate and he doesn’t want any of these fucking random idiots on Grindr to fuck him — or to fuck them, for that matter — and ends up forcing himself to shiver in a cold shower, annoyed and honestly feeling vexed about what to do. Should he ask Petra to go out to a gay bar with him, to act as his wingman so he won’t back down? She’d do it in a heartbeat, he knows, and if he told her to plan it and why then there would be no way she would ever let him out of it. She’d drag him there and do everything she could to make sure he takes her advice, but another problem is...well, he just can’t get the other shit she had said out of his mind either.

_ “What happened in the lobby?”  _ She’d asked him. _ “If he was trying to convince you, he could’ve just left that part out. It sounds so odd.” _

As much as he doesn’t want to admit it, Levi can’t deny that parts of Smith’s email  _ had  _ sounded odd. Of course, he’d taken it with a grain of salt when he’d first read the damned thing, but the more he thinks about it the more it seems like he’d just thrown the comment in there without any context, as if he expected Levi to know exactly what it was that he was talking about. Is it just some ploy, though? Is it some kind of manipulation tactic to get Levi to respond to him in confusion, so that he’d get a chance to try to charm him again? What kind of nefarious mastermind would even think of something like that to attempt and implement it in the first place?

One who also happens to be a sleazy, underhanded business man, Levi thinks, but...well, what if he’s not? It’s only after several more days — on Monday, in fact — that Levi is even able to consider that question without tearing himself to shreds for nearly letting his stupidity rear its ugly head again, because at that point, he’s kind of accepted that his thoughts about Smith are just  _ not  _ going to go away, at least for the moment. Of course, a very strong, extra dry vodka martini helps with that too after dinner, and he finds himself pulling Smith’s email up from his deleted items folder so that he can read it again. Inwardly, he still kind of feels like a fool for actually doing this, but goes over the line about the lobby several more times while he racks his brain for any situation that he might’ve forgotten that could explain what he was talking about.

The fact that he can’t — because, as he’d said to Petra, as drop dead gorgeous as Smith is, he’s pretty sure he’d remember seeing him or interacting with him before — is, of course, what makes him think that the fucker is lying almost more than anything. However, again, even if he’s not, why does it matter to Levi? Is he just trying to find an out, an explanation for what happened between them that doesn’t involve him getting tricked? What would that do, save himself from the embarrassment? Nah, he thinks then, because he’s already experienced all that in full force anyway and he can’t change it, and even if he  _ does  _ find out it was some kind of misunderstanding he will never, ever forget what it had felt like. 

Either way, and without coming up with a real answer to the question of  _ why _ he’s about to do what he’s decided he’s going to do, he just ignores the voice in the back of his head telling him to stop, and taps the reply button on Smith’s cursed ass email.

_ “...what’s ‘that day in the lobby’ mean?”  _ He types out, practically chewing on his bottom lip as he does so.  _ “What the hell are you even talking about? And don’t give me any bullshit answers, or I really am going to go find that fucking bum, Smith.” _

Levi doesn’t even bother to proofread it before he hits send, but stares at the screen for a solid 10 seconds after he’d done so, wondering if he’d just made a huge, stupid mistake. Is this really going to hurt anything, though? Not if Smith sends him back something that sounds suspicious, he thinks, because then he obviously won’t write back again and that will fucking be that.  Maybe he won’t even answer him at all, because that’s entirely possible after the verbal reaming he’d received a few days ago, but naturally, he does, and unfortunately — or maybe fortunately, Levi isn’t sure — his response doesn’t set off his bullshit meter yet.

_ “You tell me not to contact you, and now you’re asking me questions? You’re really giving me some mixed signals here, Mr. Ackerman.”  _

At that, Levi makes a face, thinking that just because his words aren’t full of lies it doesn’t mean that they aren’t irritating — particularly when he can sense even over email that Smith’s tone is one of amusement rather than anything else.

_ “Just answer me, fuckhole.” _

_ “Alright. The incident I’m referring to happened about a year ago. I was at your building, meeting with your mother. When I left, I saw you across the lobby, at the receptionist’s desk. I knew it was you because your mother has your picture in her office, and I’ve also seen the one you have on your company website. You waved at me that day  _ — _ or so I thought. I’m starting to think I was wrong about that, but either way, I wanted to go talk to you then. However, you seemed busy and I didn’t get the chance.” _

_ What the fuck? _ Levi thinks, still having no recollection whatsoever of seeing Erwin Smith in his lobby, much less fucking  _ waving _ at him. Honestly, though, as much as he hates to admit it, the rest of his explanation does sound kind of plausible. He knows Smith had come to their office to meet with his mother plenty of times before she’d finally decided she’d had enough of his bullshit, and yes, Kuchel does have family pictures of him in her office — a lot, in fact — in addition to the stupid, official photograph he’d had to get taken of him to go on their website. However, it’s so simple that it would have been easy for Smith to make up, too, but luckily for Levi, because of what he’s claiming, he might actually have a way to find out for sure one way or the other if the asshole is telling the truth or not.

_ “Do you remember the date?”  _ Levi asks then, typing out the message and staring at his screen until Smith responds.

This time, it takes quite a while, long enough for Levi to start fretting that Smith is actually going to stop answering him. What the hell is he doing? He’s impatient and doesn’t know, but thankfully, he finally does reply, and Levi understands the reason for the slight delay right off the bat. 

_ “I had to search back through my emails to figure out when your mother set the meeting, but it looks like it took place on March 1st of last year.” _

_ “What time?” _

_ “2:30 PM. I’m not sure what time I left, however. Can I ask why you want this information, Levi?” _

_ “No.”  _

_ “Your answer surprises me.” _

_ “Shut up. If I decide you need to know why, I’ll tell you, okay?” _

_ “Has anyone ever told you that you sound just like your mother?” _

Levi rolls his eyes and wants to tell Smith to put a sock in it all over again —  _ yes _ , he  _ has  _ heard that before, perhaps a million and one goddamn times — but he doesn’t. Instead, he just huffs and tosses his tablet aside without answering, deciding that since Smith had responded to the questions  _ he’d _ had there was no further reason for him to waste time talking to the guy. He has some chores to do before bed anyway, he thinks, but either way, he wants to mull over the conversation they’d just had without interruption. He’s still confused by it and doesn’t trust Smith even just one bit, but if he can confirm his story...well, then what?

He doesn’t know, but if Smith really had been in his lobby that day it would’ve been caught on camera, because being a security company means that every ounce of the technology they have and sell to others is also used in their very own building. In fact, they have recording and video devices in enough places so that the entire lobby is covered from every single angle possible, he knows, and the footage is saved for at least 2 years before it gets deleted. It should be easy to pull it up and look through on a computer too, he thinks, which is what he plans to do as soon as possible during the work day tomorrow — although, there is one hurdle he’ll have to go over for sure in order to get it: his Uncle Kenny.  

Kenny is, of course, his mother’s older brother. They’d both technically inherited the company together after Levi’s great-grandfather had died, but Kuchel had ended up taking on the main leadership role, while Kenny had been in charge of all the ‘on the ground’ work. He’d directed the bevy of security and personal body guards they employed, oversaw the implementation of security systems, and was always the person Kuchel sent out when they were trying to land a big contract. He was a good fucking salesman and an excellent consultant, and could walk into, say, a huge stadium that needed high security for an event, and devise the logistics of such a thing in his head within minutes. 

Convincing the potential employer was easy enough for him after that, as was going back to the office to arrange it all and put the plan into place. Believe it or not, even though Levi thinks he’s a fucking demented drunkard, he’d gotten them a lot of business, but had retired from all of that about 6 years ago when the man who he was closest to — Uri Reiss, who’d been the president of his own company and had met Kenny when he’d reached out to them for security — died and made him into a morose, disheartened man who had decided he didn’t want to do the job anymore. Levi doesn’t know what his uncle’s relationship with Uri was but certainly has his suspicions, although it’s not like it matters, for it wouldn’t change the fact that Kenny had just taken on the role of Head Security Officer for only  _ their  _ building and has been doing that ever since.

Essentially, all he really does in that job is sit in the basement and watch the security cameras, which is why Levi has to go through him to get what he wants. Of course, if it had been anyone else that wouldn’t be anything to worry about, but his uncle can be... _ difficult  _ and  _ obnoxious _ , and there’s always the chance that he’ll tell his mother who will then want to know why he wants camera footage of the lobby from March 1st of last year between the times of 2:30 and 4:30 PM. It’s just such a weird, specific request that he knows Kenny will ask him why, mostly because he’s a fucking nosy bastard and likes to give Levi a hard time. Fortunately, however, Levi has a few tricks up his sleeve too, as Kenny had once been his direct boss instead of his mother, and he’d learned over the years how easy it can be to bribe him.

“Hey, Kenny.” He says about mid-morning the next day, after taking the stairs down to the basement and winding his way through what is essentially their company storage area — a massive, dimly lit room that is full of old furniture, boxes of office supplies, and shelves upon shelves upon shelves of unused security equipment, most of which are probably older than Levi himself — and into Kenny’s ‘office.’ 

It’s more of a space carved out among the clutter than an actual office, Levi knows, and is only just large enough to contain a huge corner desk with two dozen monitors on it and lots and lots of wiring. Around him, there’s pizza boxes and soda cans and empty cartons of cigarettes discarded all over the place, because his uncle is not a clean person and doesn’t feel obligated to straighten up his area when hardly anyone comes down there to see him but his nephew or his sister. Weirdly, he’d banned the janitorial staff from touching his stuff too so they don’t bother, but whatever. As much as it agitates him to be around Kenny’s disgusting, dusty cave, he ignores the mess, as well as his urge to bolt so that he can walk around one last shelf and find his stupid uncle reclining behind his desk on the other side of it.

“Hey kid.” He says from where he’s resting with his muddy boots up on the wood, obviously knowing that it’s him but not even bothering to look away from where the monitors flash through the images captured by their camera system. “The hell are you doing down here?”

Levi doesn’t respond right away. Instead, he wastes no time in stepping forward to pull a large glass bottle of expensive aged whiskey out of the paper bag he’d brought with him, lifting it into the air before setting it down with a loud  _ clunk  _ on one side of Kenny’s desk. At the sound of it, Kenny finally spares him — and it — a glance, slowly looking over his shoulder to eye Levi and his delivery with a very clear look of suspicion on his old, wrinkled face. 

“What the fuck’s that for?”

“I need a favor.” 

“Yeah, no shit. I figured, since I can’t think of any other reason you’d come all the way down here from your fancy ass office with a gift for little ol’ me. What is it?”

“The gift, or the favor?”

“The favor.”

Levi pauses for a moment, staring at Kenny — who had gone back to watching the monitors, seemingly uninterested in the liquor for the moment — and thinking about how to start. He needs to choose his words carefully, he knows, but really,  _ unfortunately _ , there’s only so many ways he can come up with to actually say it, even after contemplating this entire conversation for several long hours that morning.

“The footage from our security cams is saved for 2 years, right?” He asks, biting his lip as he fixes his eyes on the monitor that shows the lobby.

On it, the screen flashes through each view they have every three seconds or so, and he notes that most of them show the receptionist’s desk clearly, and the elevator where Erwin would have come out after meeting with his mother.

“Yeah.” Kenny responds, sounding bored. “Why?”

“...I need footage of the lobby from March 1st of last year.”

“For what?”

Here, Levi holds back a sigh. Just as he’d known he would, Kenny is asking him too many questions and already acting standoffish. Why can’t he just fucking hand over the tape without being a dick? For obvious reasons, Levi isn’t going to tell him that he needs it because he wants to check whether or not Erwin Smith was there during that time since he’d accidentally slept with him and is trying to discern whether he’s a piece of shit liar or not, but he hasn’t really come up with another excuse that would get his uncle off his back.

“Because I need to check something.” He mutters then, knowing even as he speaks that any sort of vague answer like that isn’t going to work. 

“Check what?” Kenny asks sure enough, reaching for a pack of cigarettes on his desk and sticking one in his mouth before lighting it up. Levi fights off a grimace and the urge to step back several yards when smoke immediately fills the area, mentally groaning, though, because now he knows his fucking clothes will smell like fucking cigarette smoke for the rest of the goddamn day. “Is there some kind of security issue, or somethin’? ‘Cause if there is, I need to know about it right now. I’m the head of security, kid, and I can’t just hand out these fucking tapes to anyone who comes down here askin’ for no reason.”

At that, Levi gives in to the urge he has to roll his eyes. Kenny is talking like he’s just some random, untrustworthy employee instead of being the vice president and his nephew, and like he gets requests for the security tapes every fucking day. Of course, he’s just being difficult to fuck with him, but he’s not in the mood for that shit right now, especially with the cigarette smoke swirling around his head, filling his nostrils, and irritating his goddamn throat. Unfortunately, though, he has to play nice, and ignore the very strong, very persistent urge that he has to smart off because annoying Kenny  _ certainly  _ will not help him.

“There’s not an issue, Kenny. I just need to see something.” Levi starts again, while Kenny stares at him blankly. He’s clearly not going to give in without a bit more explanation, and so after a moment, Levi sighs loudly, trying to keep his next words as vague as fucking possible while still being informative enough to get him off his back. “There’s...there’s this guy, and I want to know if he came in here or not. He’s not a security threat; I just know him. All I want to do is fucking look, and then I’ll delete the file you send me after I finish it.”

Strangely, although Levi feared that would  _ still  _ not be enough, his uncle’s expression shifts into something thoughtful, and then softens a bit as he reaches out to ash his cigarette over a small tray.

“A  _ guy _ , huh? You got a boyfriend?”

“What?  _ No.” _

“So you’re just a stalker now, then?”

“Kenny—

“Well, if you wanna act like one, I guess I won’t stop ya.” Kenny says then, interrupting what had been about to be a string of angry curses from Levi at his stupid ass comment — one that he had no longer been able to hold back and that would have probably ruined his chances of getting the tape too, if Kenny hadn’t essentially stopped it. Is he going to give in? It sounds that way, although only for a moment before Levi finds his temper flaring back up like it had never even fucking gone away. “I’ll give you the tape. But you’re gonna have to sign my log first.”

“What? I’m not signing any shitty log. What the fuck are you talking about?”

“You gotta sign the log if you wanna view the footage.”

“Fuck that.” Levi declares, knowing that there is no actual log, and that Kenny is just making that shit up to be a stupid annoying dick. Deciding he’s tired of this already and it’s fucking pointless — he’s on edge because this has to do with Smith in the first place, and his impatience is getting the better of him — he ends up grabbing the bottle of whiskey from Kenny’s desk and turning to go, thinking that he’ll just have to get it off of the fucker’s computer himself the next time the bastard doesn’t show up to work. “Guess I’ll just take this $200 bottle of whiskey back to the store then, asshole.”

Levi doesn’t even make it three steps before Kenny suddenly stops him. 

“Wait!” He says, now scowling in his direction as Levi pauses and looks over his shoulder. He takes one last drag off his cigarette and then puts the thing out in his ashtray, and sighs heavily,  shaking his head before he finally lifts his hand to wave him back forward again. “Let me see that damn bottle.”

Levi acquises, and watches Kenny inspect the thing with relief, as he knows he’s won and it will only be a matter of time now before he gets to watch the footage. Sure enough, Kenny agrees a moment later and tells Levi he’ll email him the file, taking the whiskey and setting it under his desk as if to hide it. Levi almost snorts because he has no doubt that Kenny will taste it after he’s gone, but whatever. He doesn’t give a shit what his uncle does down there, although that certainly isn’t the case with his mother, which is why, because he feels like he has the upper hand now and there’s still one more thing he wants to address, he doesn’t leave right away, and waits until Kenny looks at him again before speaking.

“Don’t tell mom about this.” He says, not even batting an eye when Kenny opens his mouth to  _ surely  _ tell him that he can’t promise anything. “And I won’t tell her that you turned the fire alarm off down here so you can smoke your fucking cigarettes.”

Kenny stares at him for a few seconds with an expression that seems halfway between annoyance and astonishment, but then oddly laughs,  _ loudly _ , and shakes his head in amusement before he turns to plant his boots back on top of the desk again. “You’re gonna make a great CEO one day, kid. Now get the fuck out of here, and leave me alone.”

Satisfied from that reaction that Kenny won’t tell, Levi does get the fuck out of there. He leaves the basement and goes straight back up to his office, and is relieved to find that the email from Kenny is already there in his inbox. It’s a link to where he can download the file he’d asked for from their servers, and because it’s of the whole damned day starting at midnight, he has to skip forward  _ a lot  _ until he gets to 2:30 PM — or 2:15, because he wants to see if he can spot Smith arriving too. Sure enough, the fucker walks in at about 2:23, strolling in with the familiar height and blonde hair that is now instantly recognizable to Levi after what all had happened.

The footage isn’t high quality, of course, but it’s unmistakably him, and Levi sinks down into his chair feeling an odd mixture of loathing, interest, annoyance, and lust — the last of which just makes the negative set of emotions even worse. _ Fucking bastard,  _ he thinks, watching the immaculate image of Erwin Smith in his nice suit and fancy briefcase approach the receptionist’s desk. After that, he’s told to wait in the lobby and then sits down while another person from their staff brings him a coffee, and at about 2:37, his mother’s assistant comes down to fetch him for the meeting. Smith disappears into the elevator then and Levi worries at his bottom lip, letting the video run for a moment or two because it’s now clear that...well, he  _ definitely  _ hadn’t been lying about being at Ackerman Securities that day. 

Still, it’s what happens when he goes to leave that really matters to Levi, and so he skips forward in very small increments until he sees himself appear from the opposite direction of the elevators with Gunther and Eld, along with another man too. Gunther is his best salesman and Eld is his R&D guy — both of them had been hired by Levi and work with him specifically — and as he watches himself approach the receptionist’s desk too, he suddenly begins to remember what had been happening that day. They’d been meeting with a potential client, he recalls, who had come in to discuss the details of a huge deal that Levi had been focused on trying to close for  _ weeks _ , as the guy’s company was pretty high profile and the contract would’ve netted them a lot of money. 

Unfortunately, the meeting had ended that day without an agreement, however, and later, Levi remembers hearing through the grapevine that the man Levi had met with had chosen another company — Smith  _ fucking _ Industries, for that matter. At the sudden recollection, Levi’s eyes widen and his jaw practically drops open, and he suddenly feels so  _ livid  _ that he slams his fist down on the spacebar to pause the goddamn video. What the  _ fuck, _ he thinks?  _ Seriously? _ Had Erwin Smith stolen his deal on the same shitty day that he’d tried to tell Levi they had waved at each other? What a load of shit! Of course, he supposes that he shouldn’t be too surprised considering that he’d already vaguely known the asshole was responsible for scooping up a lot of their potential clients and causing them to lose business, but...well, now it suddenly feels  _ personal,  _ although at the time, he hadn’t been offended necessarily after learning the news. 

That was because he hadn’t been tricked into screwing the guy yet though, and it was before he’d experienced first hand what a goddamn sleazeball he could be. Still, despite all of that, he finds himself wondering how many of his own specific failed deals and business propositions had been in some way ruined by fucking Smith — a thought that is honestly infuriating, he thinks, especially since he recalls that his mother had really, really been counting on him to sign up the client he’d been meeting with that day and had been disappointed when it hadn’t happened. Of course, she hadn’t been upset with him, really, but just in general, although  _ god, _ he thinks then, regardless of that, what the fuck is he even doing sitting there watching this garbage to begin with?

Why should he care about  _ anything  _ this piece of shit cocksucker says in his emails, especially when it won’t automatically mean he’s not a lying son of a bitch bastard about his intentions at the hotel, and when he’s basically driving Ackerman Securities into ruin with his underhanded practices? He’s one of the main reasons their profits had initially started to drop, Levi knows, and his mother is right — he really does make them look like fucking  _ idiots,  _ and he probably had actually been behind that terrible article that had come out about them in the newspaper a while back like she’d said, as paying some reporter off to publicly lambast their company doesn’t seem so far-fetched when he’d also seduced and slept with the president’s son in an attempt to gain favor in his ongoing attempts to buy them the fuck out. 

Why does he even want them so bad, Levi wonders then? To just make himself richer? Probably, he thinks, which just disgusts him even more, but he still doesn’t understand why he seriously thought that fucking Levi like that was going to work. Did he just...think Levi was going to instantly fall in love with him, or something, and forgive him for being a slimy liar when he inevitably found out? Is he really that arrogant? Of course he is — there’s really no doubt about it — but it’s stupid, and he can’t help but feel just as pissed off and frustrated at himself as he had when he’d first realized who Smith was at the hotel that morning all over again. How could he have fallen for his bullshit? How could he have emailed him the night before too, and started to consider in even just the  _ slightest  _ what he was saying, enough so that he then pulled this shitty video footage to verify it or whatever like it fucking mattered? 

Doing so is probably just setting himself up for more foolishness, he knows, but despite that, he finds himself pressing play again on the tape even as he practically grinds his teeth, perhaps because he just wants to prove to  _ himself  _ that he hadn’t waved to Smith at all. He  _ better  _ not have, he thinks then, but as he’d thought before, he just doesn’t understand how he could’ve done that shit and then forgotten about it. When Smith had first approached him at the hotel bar he’d been practically blindsided by his good looks — as much as he continually hates to admit that — and struck by the fact that he’d wanted to talk to him. Of course, that had been bullshit, obviously, but at the time he hadn’t known, and he finds it hard to believe that he wouldn’t have felt the same way if he and Smith had locked eyes in his lobby and waved at each other. 

He would’ve recalled and would have wanted to find out who the man was, right? To try and talk to him? He thinks so, and although he’s angry, it doesn’t escape his mind that what he’d just thought had basically been what Smith had said to him too in his email.

_ When I decided to approach you, business was the last thing on my mind. I only wanted to talk. _ He’d told Levi.  _ I haven’t been able to forget about you since that day in your lobby. _

What the fuck did that even mean, Levi wondered? Even if he were telling the truth, what the hell could he possibly want to talk to him about? And he couldn’t ‘forget’ about him? Fucking why? If he wasn’t so convinced that Smith was a sociopath liar, he might have thought from those words that the man was just interested in him in general, as in...well, what were the chances that Smith just wanted to fuck him, and that was really it? Pretty goddamn slim, Levi thinks, so there’s no actual point in even considering anything like that — especially when it sounds like he’s trying to find excuses for Smith  _ himself  _ instead of remaining firm in his belief that the man is a diabolical pig and not worth his consideration. 

Still, it does seem like he had wanted to approach Levi to talk to him after he’s finished watching the video, although he is relieved to confirm that he hadn’t waved at Smith, honestly feeling vindicated and triumphant when he sees the stupid shit that had actually happened instead. After his lost client leaves, Levi watches himself stay at the receptionist’s desk to sign for a package that had just arrived. He’s busy doing that when Smith suddenly reappears from the elevator, and begins to walk across the lobby toward the front entrance with his stupid briefcase. Idly, he smooths his tie down and looks in Levi’s direction after taking a few steps, and doesn’t remove his gaze, obviously having caught sight of Levi by then before he ends up completely stopping just 3 or 4 feet from the exit. 

Clearly, he’s watching Levi and fucking staring at him, and just as the man had said, he slowly raises his hand a split second later to wave in his direction. At that point, Levi stops the tape. He skips back 2 or 3 seconds and focuses on himself when he hits play, and immediately sees that he’s also lifted his hand in a wave — one that, by all intents and purposes, appears to be angled right towards Smith. However, all he has to do is switch to another camera view to realize that he’s actually waving at fucking Petra, who had just walked in the door behind Smith with coffee and is on her way to the elevator. She waves back and then past-Levi is quickly distracted by some other employees coming up to him while he takes his package, and although Smith’s gaze lingers on him for a few moments longer, he does eventually turn to leave, walking out the front doors without sparing any further glances behind him.

_ Jesus fucking Christ _ , Levi thinks then, honestly almost staring at his computer screen in complete disbelief. What kind of stupid,  _ ridiculous  _ turn of events is this? Smith had supposedly thought Levi had waved at him but he’d really been waving at another person behind him, which sounds like some mortifying, awkward thing that might’ve happened to Levi as a teenager. It’s fucking dumb and cringe-worthy and he can’t lie and say that it doesn’t make Smith look like a pathetic dork — something that would cause Levi to be embarrassed for him if he fully believed he was actually telling the truth. How could he know, though, that Petra was behind him? There’s no way because he’d never once looked in her direction, but even if it’s almost laughable since he’d seemed so smooth and suave at the hotel, it doesn’t change his opinion that  _ none  _ of this fucking matters. 

Whether or not he’s being honest about what he’d perceived that day or is just using it as an excuse to make himself look less shitty for taking advantage of him, it doesn’t change the fact that he should’ve told Levi his name. How could he seriously assume that Levi knew who he was from just one fucking wave? Doing so would not have automatically meant that Levi had realized he’d been waving at Erwin Smith of Smith fucking Industries, Inc., and he finds it really, really goddamn hard to believe that he hadn’t shown at least some signs that he hadn’t been aware of who he was actually fucking that night at the hotel. Smith isn’t an idiot and he hadn’t been drunk, and this doesn’t mean he isn’t an asshole scumbag or that Levi should just roll over and accept everything that he says and forgive him.

No, he’d be even more of an idiot than he already is to do something like that, he thinks, especially since this is just more proof to him that Smith is an arrogant son a bitch and so used to getting his way that he really believes shit like this will work. What the fuck is wrong with him, Levi thinks for the hundredth time? He really does wonder, but what is he supposed to do now? Nothing? Forget about him and this incident and move on, like he’d wanted to do before? Yes, he thinks, that is obviously the answer to this situation, but he’d already tried and discovered how hard that is proving to be because his stupid dick keeps reminding him of what had happened that night. It’s honestly so frustrating that it makes him feel infuriated just because of how disloyal his body is — something that is now made even fucking worse since he’s still seething a bit from the realization that Smith had stolen one of his clients. 

The nerve of that asshole, he thinks too, to try and convince him he was trustworthy because of something that had happened on the same exact day that he’d cost him a  _ huge  _ business deal is almost hard to believe, and he honestly has the sudden urge to tell Smith off again in an email, or even send the goddamn tape to him because it really makes him look like a fucking idiot and it’s funny. Perhaps seeing that Levi had not been waving at him, but at someone else, would knock his egotistic ass down a peg or two, Levi thinks, because that shit is mortifying, and if he could make that bastard feel even an ounce of the embarrassment and foolishness that Levi had felt about himself after what happened...well, then perhaps he might be able to get over that part of it sometime before his mother retires. 

That, though, would surely be another mistake on his part, but just as he’s trying to convince himself of that, something else happens to make him feel so antagonized and enraged that he  _ swears  _ he actually fucking sees red.

_ Ping. _ The sound of an email arriving on his phone distracts him from where he’d leaned back in his chair to scowl at the ceiling. Upon hearing it, he sighs and then checks his inbox on his computer, and immediately sees that he does, in fact, have an email. From Erwin Smith. The stupid fucking scum sucking lowlife bastard that apparently will  _ never  _ just leave him the hell alone. Practically gaping for a moment, as if he can’t believe he’d gotten an email from the fucker exactly right then, he clenches his jaw a second later and clicks on it, opening the damned thing and then staring in a strange type of angry astonishment at what he sees.

 

> Tues 11:16 AM
> 
> To:  [ Levi.Ackerman@AckSec.com ](mailto:Levi.Ackerman@AckSec.com)
> 
> From:  [ ESmith@SmithIndustries.com ](mailto:ESmith@SmithIndustries.com)
> 
> Re: Good morning, Levi.
> 
> I’m sorry if I’m bothering you again, but I’m curious: do you have anything to tell me yet?
> 
> Erwin Smith
> 
> Owner and CEO
> 
> Smith Industries, Inc.

 

_ Good morning, _ Levi thinks, before he even gets to the rest of it, what the  _ fuck  _ does Smith  _ mean  _ ‘good morning?’ Does he...does he really believe they’re on casual speaking terms now, just because Levi had asked him a couple of questions the other night? Does he truly think that Levi  _ wants  _ Smith to wish him good morning, or that he’ll be flattered by it? Levi doesn’t know, and he can’t really fathom that Smith had just said that to him out of the kindness of his heart anyway. No, he wants something, and once he’s able to read the body of the email he realizes what it is. He’s sending him this because he wants to know if Levi had uncovered anything after their conversation, because Levi had told him he’d only let Smith know if he wanted to and the jerkoff apparently can’t contain himself and just wait. 

It’s ridiculous — regardless of anything else, how is annoying him to death going to help Smith get what he wants? — and because Levi is so incensed again, because he’s honestly tired of all this speculation and annoyance and wants to be rid of this fucker once and for all, he copies the video footage over onto a thumb drive and makes a fucking decision.

“Petra.” He says, after dialing up her extension and waiting for her to answer. “I have to run an errand. I’ll be back later.”

For the moment, her reply is quick, and almost automatic. “Okay.” 

“If my mom asks, tell her I had to go to the doctor or something.”

“What? Wait, where are you—

_ Click. _ Levi hangs up before she can even get the question out — there’s no way in hell he’s going to tell her where he’s  _ really  _ going right then, he thinks, because she’ll accost him and surely give him shit and he’s not in the mood right now — and grabs the thumb drive, shoving it into his pocket before he throws on his suit jacket and rushes out of his office. He hurries in the hopes that he can evade her before she comes out of hers to find him, and thankfully, he does, and he isn’t stopped by anyone else as he rides the elevator and exits the building either. Walking out front, he stops and looks in the direction of the tower Smith’s offices are in, and stares at it for a moment with a pissed off scowl as the wind gently blows through his hair. 

Pausing like that, he has enough sense to consider whether or not this is something that he should do, but finds no reason to change his mind, as the rage is still pumping through his veins and he’s honestly starting to believe that this may be the only way to get this man to leave him alone, for good. He has it in his head that he’s ready for a fight and that he isn’t going to back down now, because he’s not afraid of confronting the bastard, because he’s not  _ intimidated  _ by that arrogant piece of shit in the least and feels like he needs to prove it. Also, making Smith look like a moron and witnessing it at the same time will be immensely goddamn satisfying, and so after swallowing down any doubt or remaining hesitance, he turns to start heading Smith’s direction down the sidewalk.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Dear Levi.” Petra starts before directly teasing him, however, clearing her throat in a loud, dramatic way and then raising her voice, apparently having decided to fuck with him at 8:00 in the morning by reading from the card like she’s putting on a goddamn presentation. “Please forgive me if this is still unwelcome. I just wanted to let you know that I enjoyed our ‘meeting’ the other day, and I’ve been thinking about ‘having’ you again here ever since. Your presence brightened up my office, and I very much hope that I will hear from you soon. Yours truly, Erwin Smith.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello all! first I want to say that this IS a multi-chapter fic (apparently i forgot to check that box when i uploaded the first chapter), and this is the second part. there will be a couple more after this as well. second, i just want to say THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for all of your kind comments and reactions <3 i was truly not expecting this fic to get as much of a reception as it did, and it made me very happy that so many people enjoyed it. i'm awfully slow these days which explains the long wait, but i hope you enjoy this part as much as the first while i start working on the third :)

When Levi walks into Smith’s building, the first thing he notices is that it’s fucking huge, although he is, of course, not surprised about that in the least. What he  _ is  _ surprised about, however, is the sheer volume of people he finds rushing around inside and entering and exiting nearby him, because despite the fact that he  _ knows  _ Smith Industries isn’t the only business located there — Smith owns the tower, but rents out dozens and dozens of offices to other corporations and firms inside of it — he feels like he’s just stepped into a gigantic fucking train station. It’s ridiculous, and he hadn’t been expecting it, and for a moment, the sight actually halts the furious pace that he’d been making his way over in, as the large, crowded space causes him to feel like he has to stop so that he can take a look around and get his bearings.  

 

_ Shit. _ He thinks. Where’s the goddamn directory? He needs to find it in order to figure out where to locate Smith himself — or at least, how to get to him, because even though he’s willing to bet his entire salary that the asshole’s stupid asshole office is on the very top floor, he doubts that reaching it will be as simple as getting onto the first elevator he sees and pressing the button with the highest number. No, buildings that take up an entire city block like this one are rarely straightforward, and true enough, once he finds a business listing he discovers that first, he’s definitely right about where Smith works because his company actually makes up the top  _ fifteen  _ floors of the tower, and second, that he will have to take an escalator up another level in order to access their elevators.

 

They have their own entire bank of them, naturally, which turns out to be easy to spot because of the huge sign displayed on the wall nearby, although Levi gets somewhat distracted on the way there by the growing disgust he feels about the...the over the top  _ resplendence  _ contained in Smith’s building. The place is just fucking fancy, he finds himself thinking, and grandiose, because he passes about half a dozen small stores and food stalls on the first floor — including a bank, a coffee place, and a flower shop that he glares at because he’s suddenly  _ sure  _ Smith had gotten the bouquet he’d sent him from there — and then a high end sushi restaurant and signs pointing to a full sized gym on the second. 

 

The amenities are a lot, he thinks, and although deep down he can’t deny that the building would probably be a nice place to work, the walk over had not reduced his pissy attitude in the least, and all he sees there is evidence of Smith’s success and how much of a rich bastard he really must be. Needless to say, that just makes him even more aggravated than he had already been before, and so once he reaches the elevators he needs, he ends up slapping his hand down over the button so hard that the person standing next to him suddenly glances over and then takes a step back. They give him a weird look too, Levi sees, but whatever, he doesn’t fucking care, just as he can’t make himself give a shit about how aggressively he pushes his way into the elevator once the car arrives to take him up either.

 

After he steps inside of it, however, he does take a deep breath and force himself to calm down, because just as he’d known that reaching Smith Industries in the first place wouldn’t be simple, he is acutely aware of the fact that getting to its President and CEO will probably be even more complicated than that. After all, he knows from his own experience that he’ll probably have to go through several other people first before he’s allowed to ‘meet’ with him in the first place, and storming in there cursing and stomping and taking his anger towards Smith out on his staff isn’t going to do him any favors. No, he’ll have to play this cool, so to speak, and because of that, he finds himself checking his appearance in the shiny elevator doors across from him, eyeing his reflection and straightening his tie and then running a hand over his hair to smooth down any loose ends.

 

He needs to look professional, he thinks, without behaving suspiciously, but truth be told, he doesn’t think he’ll have _that_ much of a real problem as long as he gives Smith some indication that _he_ is the one asking to see him — not that he plans on telling any of his staff who he is though, because fuck that. No, he doesn’t want _anyone_ knowing that he’s there, not at all, but thankfully, he’s already come up with a plan that will theoretically let him avoid that. With that in mind, he steps out of the elevator when it arrives and into another lobby, and heads directly for the receptionist's desk while nodding politely at the security guard he passes along the way. The guy returns it and Levi can feel his eyes on his back as he moves past, but he doesn’t worry, as he used to work that position himself under his uncle before his mother had up and made him an executive, and he figures it’s only curiosity, recalling from experience that people in fancy business suits usually pretend that service personnel like that don’t exist. 

 

Either way, he hasn’t done anything to get himself forcibly removed from the building just yet, and in an effort to keep that from happening, he maintains his fake, pleasant attitude once he reaches the receptionist and is greeted politely.

 

“Good morning.” She says to him, giving Levi an obviously forced friendly smile — one that fails to hide the boredom behind her eyes or the fact that she was just shopping for boots on her cell phone. “Can I help you?”

 

Before Levi answers her, he stops at the desk to discreetly take a look around, and notices right away that there’s a sign in sheet. On it, predictably, are 3 columns: one for the visitor to write their name, one for the appointment time, and one for the person who they’re scheduled to see. Considering that Levi sure as fuck does not have a goddamn appointment, he ignores it, and rests an elbow on top of the paper before speaking. “Yeah. I’m here to see Erwin Smith.”

 

“Do you have an appointment?” The woman — or kid, really, because she looks very young, with dark hair and freckles and like she only has this job because she’s in college — asks automatically, having now lost her smile and started looking at Levi in a way that suggests she’s anticipating bullshit and absolutely dreading it.

 

“No, I’m a friend. He told me to drop by today before lunch. He knows I’m coming.” Levi says, lying smoothly and easily, just as he’d learned from years of being around his uncle. 

 

Still, the receptionist — her name tag says Ymir, Levi now sees — doesn’t look like she believes him, but whatever. He really doubts she’s going to send him away without at least calling someone to check into it. 

 

“Do you have a name, Mr...?”

 

“Bum. Mr. Bum. Tell him that I’ve come to take a shit in his lobby. I know it sounds crazy, but it’s an inside joke; he’ll get it.” 

 

At that, Ymir no longer appears bored. Instead, she just stares at him for a moment in confusion, drawing her brows down and finally taking the time to fully glance him over. Looking him up and down, she seems to be trying to determine whether or not he’s actually serious about this or...well, if he’s just fucking crazy, or something. Whether her quick appraisal of him gives her the answers she’s looking for, however, Levi does not know, but either way, weirdly enough, after another second passes she suddenly bursts out into loud, raucous laughter, right before she turns in her chair to grab at the receiver on her phone. 

 

“Hey Armin!” She says, after pressing a few buttons and waiting for this ‘Armin’ person to actually pick up. “There’s somebody down here wanting to see your boss. No, he doesn’t have an appointment, but he says they’re friends. His name is Mr. Bum. He told me to tell Erwin that he’s here to take a shit in the lobby!”

 

After that, Ymir laughs again, and it’s obvious that she is clearly entertained by Levi’s stupid, ridiculous bullshit — something that he might find amusing too, if he was capable of feeling anything in that moment other than simmering disgruntlement. Still, he internally shakes his head when it seems that Armin, who Levi assumes is Smith’s assistant, does not necessarily share Ymir’s attitude and must be pretty vexed, as he continues to ask her question after question as if he’s guarding the president of the fucking United States.

 

“I dunno, Armin. I’m not sure. Yeah, he said he knew him, like I told you.” He hears Ymir say, because she is not attempting to lower the volume of her voice at all. “No, he doesn’t have a briefcase. Yeah...no, no, he doesn’t look dangerous. He’s uh...short, with dark hair. Why the hell would he have a bomb? Nah, I’ve never seen him before, but he doesn’t look crazy. He’s wearing a suit. He’s  _ definitely _ not a bum, so I guess it’s just his actual name. Is the bossman busy, or what?”

 

At that point, Levi, who is kind of confused and irritated at the fucking questions Armin had apparently been asking Ymir — why the hell  _ would  _ he have a bomb indeed? — ends up holding his breath, because Armin must have been satisfied enough by her answers to put her on hold so that he could go check. Levi waits a minute, and then another while Ymir goes back to looking at boots, and then finally, she murmurs an ‘okay’ and hangs up the phone, and turns to face Levi again with something of an amused grin.

 

“Okay, Bum, just have a seat over there.” She tells him, gesturing to a large waiting area directly to her right. “Erwin is on a conference call, and his assistant will come get you when he’s finished.”

 

Levi, relieved that he won’t have to resort to calling Smith himself to tell him that he’s there, thanks her, and walks over to find a chair in the lobby. There, he sits, and waits...and waits and waits and fucking  _ waits  _ for so long that his mind wanders and some of his aggression inevitably melts away, even while he can’t help but replay the events from the tape over and over again in his head. He thinks about it and about what he wants to say to Smith when he’s finally face to face with him too, but finds himself just picturing the way the fucker had stood there watching him in the Ackerman Securities’ lobby. He really  _ had  _ looked like he’d wanted to go over and talk to him, Levi admits, but again, for what? If it had been business shit, couldn’t he have emailed him with whatever he’d wanted at  _ some  _ point during the year before they’d met at the hotel? 

 

It’s strange, and he supposes he starts to feel what Petra had been trying to tell him before: something just doesn’t add up — or at least, it doesn’t unless Smith had started to plan his bullshit seduction attempt right then and there when he’d first seen him. Its either that, Levi thinks, or what he’d thought of earlier about the asshole just wanting to have sex with him because he found him attractive, which is something that the shit he’d said in his original email about not being able to forget Levi kind of actually points to anyway. Unfortunately, however, that idea still seems just as unbelievable as it had earlier when he’d still been in his office, because despite everything, Levi really can’t see how a man like Smith would find a man like him to be genuinely attractive. 

 

It’s not that Levi thinks he’s physically disgusting or anything like that though — or that he’d ever had a problem simply getting laid when he’d actually gone out and tried — because he doesn’t, but he’s just short and always wearing a scowl and is  _ certainly  _ not traditionally handsome, and...well, Smith is intelligent, charming, and basically the type of guy that he’d always considered to be out of his league from the moment he’d first realized he was gay. That’s what makes him so fucking pissed off and hurt all over again when he thinks about how the fucker had called him beautiful while in bed, however, as they were words that he’d foolishly believed, and that had made him feel good when Smith hadn’t even meant it. 

 

It’d been unnecessary too, to be honest, because Levi had already been in the palm of his hand by then and ready and willing to fucking go, but Smith had done it anyway and caused his heart to flutter stupidly, and remembering it is just like twisting a knife in an already sore,  _ gaping  _ open wound.  _ Pig headed bastard _ , Levi thinks then, even while he does find himself wondering if he would’ve been as angry at Smith if he actually  _ had  _ just wanted to sleep with him instead of anything else. Would he have gotten his feelings hurt so much, he asks himself, if Smith had only wanted a piece of his ass? 

 

Probably not, because he cannot deny, after all, that he hadn’t wanted to fuck Smith from practically the first second they’d started talking to each other at the bar either, and ridiculously enough, even then, even through his resentment and irritation and the fact that he is only there to tell the man off, the thought of Smith having him on his mind like that for an entire  _ year _ and then seeking him out for one purpose is actually kind of exciting. It threatens to make him feel lustful again, naturally, but still, even if that  _ were  _ true he doesn’t think he could ever excuse Smith for not telling him his name, as after all, they  _ are  _ management in two closely competing companies, and regardless of whatever else, there is nothing that would ever make that unimportant information. 

 

No, it was as he’d thought from nearly the moment he’d seen Smith’s business card at the hotel: leaving that out is bullshit no matter how he looks at the situation, but if there’s no ulterior motive behind it...well, he  _ supposes  _ he can admit that it wouldn’t seem  _ quite  _ as fucking sleazy and manipulative as he had originally thought. That’s probably just his traitorous dick putting thoughts in his brain again though, but whatever. Levi is starting to become re-irritated because of how long he’d been fucking waiting by then, as he’d almost been there an entire 45 minutes at that point, and who the hell does Smith think Levi  _ is? _ Some random fucking guy? There’s no way in hell he hadn’t realized it was him who’d shown up if his assistant had told him what he’d actually said, Levi thinks, and to be honest, he really doesn’t give three shits about his busy schedule or his stupid ass conference call. 

 

Fuck his conference call, and fuck his goddamn schedule; Levi isn’t going to sit there and wait around forever until the egotistical asshole decides he’s worth his attention and deigns to have him brought up, because  _ he  _ has conference calls too, and probably shouldn’t have left work so suddenly up and out the blue to come over there like this. Doing such things is irresponsible, he knows deep down, especially right then because he’s busy with plenty of shit that he should actually be doing  _ instead  _ of wasting his time with a fucking jerk — something that makes him realize the waiting is fucking bullshit and he’d probably acted like a dumbass in deciding to come over there in the first place. He’s starting to feel like an idiot again because of that, however, and it really, really,  _ really  _ fucking makes him mad, but still, in addition to that, it’s just...well, he doesn’t actually  _ get it.  _

 

Hadn’t Smith mentioned a couple of times that he’d wanted to meet Levi in person to ‘explain?’ Yes, Levi recalls, he had, so what the fuck is he doing now? Had he changed his mind, and decided that he was too much of a coward to talk to him face to face, even in his own office? If that was the case, then fucking fine; Levi will just leave the damned flash drive with the receptionist and let him find out what a goddamn idiot he actually is himself, as he refuses to be made a fool of a second time — especially when this incident would only be his own fucking fault. Swearing under his breath, Levi leans back in his seat to fish for the flash drive in his pocket then, glowering at the ground, grabbing the thing, and standing up, only to find himself halted just as he goes to take a step towards Ymir when he hears the elevator start dinging behind him.

 

Out of it steps a very small, very young looking man with blonde hair and glasses who immediately fixes his eyes on him, and as he smiles sort of nervously and starts to walk over, Levi has no doubt that he’s President and CEO Erwin Smith’s assistant Armin.

 

“Hi! Are you Mr. Bum?” He asks then, confirming that thought and holding out his hand while Levi just blinks and stares, finding that he almost has to prepare himself for this all over again after such an abrupt shift in gears. 

 

Also, there is the honest to god surprise that this kid is  _ seriously _ calling him that even though it  _ is _ what he’d told the receptionist, but after he forgets leaving and reminds himself why he’d come there in the first place, he does shake Armin’s hand, although not before he takes a deep, steadying breath and shoves the flash drive back into his pocket. 

 

“Yeah. That’s me.”

 

“Well, I’m really sorry for the long wait. Mr. Smith’s call went over, but he can see you now. Please, follow me!”

 

The kid turns and walks Levi to the elevator, and although he’d only spoken to him for a few seconds, he’s already noticed the stark contrast between what he sees as a barely held back exuberance — clearly, Armin no longer believes him to be a bomber — and the uncaring attitude that Ymir had exhibited. Not that it matters to him, though, because it fucking doesn’t, but he’s pretty sure Smith’s receptionist wouldn’t have tried to make awkward conversation with him in the elevator or ask him uncomfortable questions.

 

“So...how long have you known Er— I mean, Mr. Smith?” Armin blurts out once the doors close, causing Levi to look over at him and notice the kid’s friendly, eager smile. 

 

“Uh...a while.” Levi answers, obviously lying through his teeth again while averting his eyes, and hoping that his standoffish attitude will discourage any further discussion.

 

Unfortunately, he has no such luck.

 

“Where did you meet?” 

 

“...at a business thing. You know, an event.”

 

“I see. Are you in a similar line of work too?”

 

“I guess you could say that.”

 

“What is it? Security?”

 

“...yeah. Yeah, it’s security.”

 

“Oh, that’s Mr. Smith’s top interest! He’s been really innovative in his approach to building his company up around that, and his ideas are amazing. He works closely with R&D, and we’ve even received several patents for our equipment! You should ask him about it, although...I guess you probably already know since you’re his friend, right?”

 

There is a big, red STOP button on the wall of the elevator, and it’s at that point that Levi contemplates pushing it, weighing the risks of how many alarms it might set off versus being able to get off at the next floor so that he can escape the hellish trap that he’d unwittingly walked himself into.  _ Fuck _ , he thinks then,  _ fuck, _ if he hears one more word about Smith’s goddamn success in the security business he’s going to lose his fucking mind, and he doesn’t understand why the hell this kid can’t sense his irritation. He’s openly scowling at that point, in fact, and doesn’t respond to the annoying ass question he’d just asked him — even though he  _ does  _ know all about Smith’s patents, but not because the piece of shit is his friend — which Levi can tell isn’t an attempt to find out whether he’s lying or not, but a sincere thought that he’d just had while talking and blurted out loud. 

 

Regardless, though, the elevator thankfully reaches its destination just a few moments after that, and Levi doesn’t have to worry about making Smith’s poor assistant cry. Instead, he steps out to find himself on the very top floor of the skyscraper as he’d expected, and inside what he determines to be a small sitting area. It’s devoid of people, however, and the place is fairly quiet save for the distant sound of ringing phones, but Levi knows better than to think it’s deserted. No, plenty of other executives in Smith’s company probably have offices on this floor too, he thinks then, and sure enough, there are several long hallways leading out in different directions from where they’re standing now,  _ all  _ of them with rooms and doorways lining the walls down to the ends of each —  _ except,  _ he notices,  _ for one _ . 

 

Across from him, directly in front of the elevator, there is a corridor that seems to go straight through the center of the building, long and empty and only marked at the end by a single room that rests behind a large, heavy looking set of wooden double doors. They’re very obvious, and imposing, and naturally, it’s down that hallway that Armin begins to lead him, walking with a brisk pace even as he keeps glancing over his shoulder to look at Levi as they go. Levi notices it, enough so that he can tell it’s not really in a suspicious way but because Armin honestly just seems curious, although all he can really focus on is those damned double doors that are getting closer and closer by the second. 

 

Obviously, he knows what, or rather,  _ who _ lays behind them, and feels so absolutely certain about that fact that he doesn’t even need confirmation from the plaque on the wall nearby — it reads ‘Erwin Smith, President and CEO,’ of course — to understand that he’s about to face him. Still, even though he’d been thinking about what he’d like to say to the bastard for basically a matter of weeks by then and felt certain about how he might act, he honestly finds himself frozen when Armin knocks, when he whisks him inside after hearing a deep, unfortunately familiar voice say ‘come in,’ and closes the door behind him. Indeed, all he does for a moment or two after that is stand in place, just staring, ending up nearly defeaned by the sound of his fucking heart pounding wildly in his ears as he catches sight of Smith standing up from behind his desk to greet him. 

 

His mouth is open, Levi notices then, like he’d been about to say hello to him or something like that, but strangely,  _ he _ appears caught off guard too, and because of that, because they both seem to be affected by an equal amount of surprise and bewilderment that is probably...well, born out of a lot of things, they end up just remaining still and basically gaping at each other in silence — at least until Levi is suddenly distracted by the scene outside of the window. Naturally, he thinks then, Smith’s office  _ would  _ contain an entire fucking wall of them behind his desk, because what would an executive suite at the top of a skyscraper be without a fantastic, bird’s eye view of the city? Even  _ he _ has to admit that it’s pretty amazing, although he does also realize that it’s facing in the direction of Ackerman Securities because of fucking course it is, and that the windows let in a large amount of sunlight, which is currently shining in through the glass onto Smith’s stupidly thick, beautiful blonde hair and making it look like gold. 

 

_Shit_ , Levi thinks then, clenching his fists and adopting a scowl because _fuck_ , the man is a goddamn _adonis,_ but even though he’d known that, even though he’s pissed off and kind of wants to punch him in his handsome face — right between his perfectly squared, manly jaw and his high, modelesque cheekbones — he can’t help but feel struck by it all over again now that he’s seeing him once more in person. God...there’s that height too and that solid, square build, all of which are features that Levi remembers clearly and that he can’t help but catch as his eyes lower to take Smith in almost on their own. Immediately, his treacherous brain reminds him of what Smith had looked like naked as well, and needless to say, it’s really all he can do to shake the delectable image out of his head and stop his stomach from fluttering so that he can focus on _why_ _the fuck_ he’s actually there. 

 

Before he can say manage to say anything, however, Smith pipes up and speaks first, suddenly losing his own surprised expression as he offers Levi a smile — one that is quite frankly gorgeous, and that causes a funny feeling to well up in his chest that he really, really doesn’t fucking like or even want to actually acknowledge.

 

“Levi.” Smith says, standing with his hands in his pockets while continuing to gaze at him softly — something that nearly sends Levi into a fit, because what the fuck is  _ that  _ about, he wonders? What’s with that weird, friendly  _ look _ ? When will Smith drop the fake ass overly polite bullshit and start acting like the bastard that he fucking is? “This is a surprise. I was worried for a moment that you actually  _ were  _ going to be a bum.”

 

Levi doesn’t laugh at the joke. Instead, he just gawks, and then suddenly shakes his head, and experiences a renewed swell of frustration, anger, and disgust that causes him to shove his hand in his own pocket before he stalks across the room. He grabs the flash drive out of it like he’d planned and approaches Smith’s desk, and glares at him as nastily as he can before he flings the thing down on top of the wood violently. It clatters and skips across the surface, of course, but Smith’s eyes never leave his, and although his smile  _ does  _ sort of fade away, he doesn’t really look offended by Levi’s actions in the least. 

 

“What’s this?” He just asks instead, only appearing thoughtful and sounding curious in the face of Levi’s obvious displeasure.

 

“Video footage from the cameras in my lobby.” Levi spits out in response, crossing his arms and continuing to scowl at the slimy motherfucker in front of him —  _ refusing _ to seem intimidated when he’s not, although it feels frustratingly hard to get that across when he has to crane his fucking neck back to meet Smith’s blue eyes — until the man finally lowers his head to look down. “I thought maybe if I showed you what a fucking dumbass you are in person you might finally give up and leave me the hell alone. What the fuck do you think you’re doing, emailing me earlier? Did I  _ say _ that I wanted to hear from you again, asshole?!”

 

“Ah...no, but you emailed me yourself last night. Again, mixed signals, Levi.”

 

“Fuck off with that shit! Do you really expect me to believe you’re such a fucking idiot that you couldn’t tell I wasn’t exactly happy to be talking to you?”

 

“No...but I was just curious, and—

 

“And you were impatient to know whether or not you’d get the opportunity to try and seduce me again, or something? Well, guess what, cocksucker? That’s not gonna happen,  _ ever _ , so don’t even think about trying anything on me while I’m here!” 

 

At the word ‘seduce,’ Smith frowns and his big brows wrinkle together tightly. He picks up the flash drive and looks in between the small device and Levi while seeming to digest his words, as Levi, opposite from him, tries not to stare at  _ other _ parts of Smith’s body that are also big, like his hands and forearms, the former of which had held onto his hips like a vice while he’d fucked him, and the latter that are exposed now because he has his sleeves rolled up and isn’t wearing his suit jacket. He looks slightly more casual, in fact — and mouthwatering, Levi thinks irritably — in just his vest and tie, but it doesn’t fucking matter, because Smith is still his enemy and he’s  _ not _ going to fall for his shit like he’d said.

 

“Well…” Smith says then, after a moment where Levi had started to think he was going to argue, or that he would  _ really _ attempt to sit there and try to lie to Levi again about his intentions. “I  _ was  _ impatient to hear something from you, but if you want me to leave you alone, why did you come all the way here with this? Why didn’t you just email it to me, or forget about it?”

 

“I told you: because I want to show you how much of a fucking moron you are for thinking that I waved at you on March 1st of last year.”

 

At that, Smith looks at Levi in mild confusion, as if his response doesn’t make sense to him and he wants to ask him a shit ton of more questions. In the back of Levi’s mind — the small part of his brain that is still rational right then — he doesn’t exactly blame him, because...well, it kind of  _ is  _ ridiculous, but also he doesn’t fucking care. He doesn’t have to explain himself to Smith, he thinks then, because his motives and wishes are none of his goddamn business. Why can’t he just watch the video, so Levi can finish naming all the reasons why his excuses are bullshit and tell him off to the point that he’ll finally understand he’s wasting his time trying to convince him of his lies?

 

“...alright.” Smith says then, thankfully deciding to do just that. “If that’s what you want. Let’s take a look.”

 

Levi just glares in response, but then finds himself furrowing his own brow in confusion when Smith, instead of plugging the flash drive into the big computer on his desk, steps away from it, and walks past Levi toward a small sitting area that is situated to the right side of the closed doors. There’s a couch and 4 chairs arranged around a square wooden coffee table, he sees, and a very large, very fancy and expensive laptop resting on top of that. Naturally, Smith goes straight for it and takes a seat on one side of the couch, and although he hasn’t said, he clearly expects Levi to follow him over and sit down. Biting his lip — he’d gotten a glimpse of Smith’s perfect ass, and is having to try really,  _ really _ hard to forget it — Levi hesitates for a few moments before slowly trudging over, deciding to just sit on the armrest of the chair that is closest to him instead of the couch.

 

There’s no way in hell he’s going to just plop down there right beside him, he thinks, because he has no desire to get any closer to the bastard who had fucking tricked him. Really, he kind of just doesn’t trust himself or his self-control if he were to do so, to be honest, but he can’t and won’t admit that right then, and instead ends up perched on the arm of the chair with an angled view of the laptop screen. He can’t see it as good like that, but whatever. He doesn’t fucking need to — not when he knows what time the bullshit starts on the tape and he is able to tell Smith how far he has to skip. He does so and just waits, watching until the image reaches the point where Smith exits the elevator, and then relives the same shit that he had before in his own office: Smith walking towards the entryway, stopping to watch Levi, and lifting his hand in what he thinks is a return wave to a gesture that Levi had not given him.

 

Suddenly, Levi then remembers that the camera view has to be changed in order for Smith to  _ really _ get what an idiot he is though, and in lieu of just telling him what buttons to press, Levi ends up lurching forward on his own to lean over and smash the key so they won’t miss it. Immediately, he then fucking curses to himself, because he’d just foolishly gotten far closer to Smith than he would’ve liked, and hadn’t he  _ literally  _ just told himself  _ not  _ to sit on the couch beside him for that exact reason? Yes, he had, and although he’d only been near him for a split second, he’d been able to feel Smith’s sharp eyes on his face and neck — at that proximity, it threatens to make him flush — and his quick movements had ended up causing a big whiff of Smith’s cologne to follow Levi back into his previous position. 

 

_God_ , he thinks then, god, _fuck_ , it smells _so fucking_ _good_ and sensing it just makes dozens of very lewd, very arousing images pop up into the forefront of his brain, and he swears that if Smith wasn’t such a motherfucking shitty snake, he’d shove the man down onto the couch and rip his clothes off right then and there. It’s a shame that he can’t, he thinks then, because the smell is making him feel tingly and he’s really starting to get turned on for no reason despite himself, which is fucking ridiculous since he’s there to fight and _not_ to fuck, and Smith isn’t even doing anything except sitting there watching what he’d wanted him to see all along. It’s just...the memories of what they’d done before and the fact that he can’t stop staring at the man’s gorgeous profile and body from the corner of his eye are getting to him, and he’s having a hard time fighting off the lust that he’d already been struggling with for the past several weeks to begin with.

 

The days had been long and Levi had remained painfully untouched all that time except by his own hand, and because of that, he’s so busy swearing at his own idiocy that he doesn’t notice Smith had just seen the part with Petra and that he’d watched it all, and that he now probably understands that he hadn’t been waving at him in the lobby — at least until he hears Smith chuckle. Needless to say, that  _ does  _ remove him from his mild trance, but why the hell is Smith fucking  _ amused? _ Doesn’t he feel like an absolute dumbass because of what had actually happened? Levi isn’t sure, but he’s already starting to bristle all over again at the thought that Smith might not react how he’d wanted.

 

“Ah.” He says then, of course, to make it worse, in a tone that is frustratingly calm instead of the mortified, awkward sounding one that Levi had hoped to hear. “It seems that I was right about my assumptions being a mistake. You didn’t wave at me after all.”

 

“Yeah, no shit!” Levi loudly blurts out in response, gesturing towards the video even as he now conveniently recalls that Smith  _ had _ actually mentioned the possibility that he might be wrong about the incident in his email.

 

He’d forgotten about it, but whatever. It doesn’t fucking matter. His quest to embarrass Smith in front of his own eyes wouldn’t have changed because all he’s doing either way is just proving it, but it’s clear to Levi now that Smith doesn’t even  _ care _ that he’d looked like a fool, and he doesn’t understand why this guy is so intent on getting the better of him  _ every single fucking time  _ they have an encounter. It’s bullshit and it makes Levi feel stupid again — particularly since that was the entire reason he’d come over there — and he can feel his anger starting to spike, slowly threatening to reach uncontrollable levels once more.

 

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have assumed. I—

 

“Listen, you fucking idiot! Even if I  _ had _ been waving at you, why the fuck would that automatically mean I knew who you were?! Do you think I’ve ever given a shit about your business?!

 

“I had been too hopeful, I suppose.”

 

Smith finishes his sentence, apparently nonplussed at Levi’s interruption despite how he’d paused to listen to him first. His face is blank and he looks kind of serious, although Levi swears he can see a twinkle of something resembling amusement hiding behind his eyes. After a bit, though, it disappears and Smith kind of looks forlorn, but that’s fucking good, because Levi doesn’t get what had been so goddamn funny in the first place. Did Smith even understand what he was trying to say there? Was he not taking him seriously? What the hell did he mean, ‘hopeful?’

 

“You’re right, of course.” Smith continues then, looking away from where he’d met Levi’s eye and back down to the laptop. “I shouldn’t have presumed that either. I’d just thought—

 

“Thought what, that everyone knows who you are just because you’re some important bigshot businessman? Give me a fucking break!” Levi interrupts again, now finding that there is nothing to stop him from giving Smith the verbal lashing he’d been holding in for the past two fucking weeks. 

 

“No, I don’t think everyone knows who I am. I wouldn’t even want that.”

 

“So, then why the fuck would  _ I _ know?!”

 

“I just thought that...well, to put it bluntly: you’re competition. We work in the same line of business. I looked you up on your company website a long time ago like I told you, because it seemed like a good idea to know who you were in case we ever ran into each other.”

 

At that, Levi is momentarily dumbfounded — not because Smith’s statement is outlandish, but the opposite, as it sounds like a perfectly logical business tactic, one that is so fucking simple, like common sense, that Levi feels like a moron because he’d never actually thought of it. Then again, though, why would he? He hates his job and doesn’t take much initiative when it comes to things that aren’t his responsibility, and Erwin Smith, he’d always felt, had firmly been his mother’s problem until the night they’d actually met. He hadn’t given a shit about Smith and didn’t need to know anything about him to do  _ his _ tasks at work, after all, so why would he have searched him up when he’d been convinced he was just some stupid old guy who he wouldn’t have to bother with until he was CEO? 

 

In short, ingenuity and motivation are not really something that he exhibits at Ackerman Securities, he knows, but still, Smith isn’t,  _ can’t _ be aware of that, and as it is his apparent M.O., he’d made Levi feel like an idiot once again.

 

“Also, your mother’s pictures.” He continues then, however, repeating what he’d said in his email before, but hurriedly and only as an afterthought, as if he’d realized he’d made Levi look like a fool and he sought to correct that in his ongoing efforts to charm him. “That’s another reason I knew who you were, like I said before.” 

 

“Okay, so what?!” Levi snaps in response though, shaking his head and suddenly seeing full red — so much so that he jumps to his feet from the chair so that he can fully face Smith. “You still should’ve told me your name just in case, you bastard! Fuck, do you really expect me to believe all of this horseshit? Just shut up and stop lying, and admit you wanted to sleep with me to get on my good side, because you want to buy my company and my mom won’t listen to you anymore!”

 

“Levi, that wasn’t why. I  _ promise _ . I know what I did looks bad, but I swear to you that I didn’t have anything like that in mind when I approached you at the bar. I should’ve made sure you knew my name, yes, and I’m sorry that I didn’t. I’m sorry that I made you feel taken advantage of, however, I...I was a little distracted after...well…we went upstairs and—

 

“Are you fucking  _ kidding _ me? Do you think that’s any excuse?!” 

 

“No. No, of course not. Forgive me.”

 

“And if  _ that _ wasn’t why you came up to me, then what was the fucking reason? You said you wanted to talk to me, but about what?!”

 

“I don’t know. Anything. Whatever you wanted. Levi, I—

 

“For fuck’s sake, you piece of shit! These excuses are pathetic. Why would I believe that you just wanted to have some friendly fucking chat about nonsense when you’ve been doing  _ everything _ to get my mom to agree to your proposals for years?!”

 

“Well...I can’t say that my intentions were only just friendly.”

 

At that, Levi’s eyebrows raise. What does  _ that _ mean, exactly? Is Smith finally going to admit that he’d had an ulterior motive, even though it doesn’t actually make sense when he’d been adamantly denying it right before that? “Yeah. I know that, fucker. You wanted to get me in bed, and then pretend to treat me all nice like you did so that’d I fall in love with you or whatever, and—

 

_ “No. _ The way that I treated you was sincere.”

 

“Bullshit!”

 

“Levi, I’m telling you the truth. I—

 

“Shut the fuck up! Stop _ lying!” _

 

“I’m not lying. If you’ll quit interrupting me and let me finish, you might—

 

“Might what? Let you convince me somehow that you’re not a disgusting pig, that you’re not a lying piece of shit scumbag that tricked me into sleeping with you and made me look like a fucking  _ idiot?!” _

 

There, Smith stops, no doubt because Levi — full of fury and frustration that Smith had even  _ tried _ to argue that the way he’d called him beautiful and made him feel special hadn’t been a lie or a  _ farce _ — had shouted that last part at nearly the top of his lungs. He was breathing hard too and clenching his goddamn fists, partly because he was so angry but also because...well, his hurt feelings were coming back, and he was trying really, really hard to keep all of that under wraps. That’s probably the reason he’d started yelling, however, but either way, it seems he’d finally crossed some sort of line, as while glaring at the momentarily speechless Smith, he thinks he sees a flash of aggravation finally pass behind his eyes.

 

_ About time,  _ Levi thinks to himself. Maybe now he’ll stop pretending to be calm and logical about this to get Levi to believe him. Maybe now he’ll admit he’d been trying to trick him, or yell and get angry, or say things that will prove he’s a bastard and justify the way that Levi had just gone fucking ballistic. Predictably, at that point, Smith not fighting back had just continued to make him feel more dumb — and more frustrated, because it’s like fucking shouting at a ridiculously handsome brick wall and makes it seem like he’s overreacting — although he also knows that hearing him  _ dare _ to argue will piss him off even more. Regardless, vindication would be better than anything and if he says something  _ really _ scummy then Levi will be victorious and it won’t matter, and he finds himself oddly waiting with bated breath when Smith suddenly looks away from him with a frustrated grimace and pinches the bridge of his nose.

 

“Levi, I think you’ve forgotten a lot of what happened that night.” He says then, in a tone that is still calm, but much, much colder than what he’d exhibited before, clearly as if he’s hiding some kind of indignant irritation. Indeed, when he turns his gaze back to Levi his eyes have gone from a warm color reminiscent of the sky to an icy, detached blue, and somewhere in the back of his mind, Levi finds himself thinking that it’s no wonder he has the reputation of being a ruthless, cutthroat businessman. If he were anyone else, he thinks, he might have backed down, but he isn’t and this is personal, although nothing could have prepared him for what came out of Smith’s mouth next. “You were the one that came onto  _ me _ first.  _ You  _ grabbed my leg, and  _ you  _ asked me to take you upstairs. I was just chatting, and it’s not like you seemed interested in learning my name anyway. You didn’t ask, and—

 

Levi doesn’t hear the rest of what Smith says, as he is practically dumbfounded at that, although this time the feeling comes with so much more anger — in an amount that he hadn’t really thought was possible, to be honest — that it nearly blinds him. A lot of that is because...well, Smith  _ is  _ technically right and somewhere way, way,  _ way _ deep down inside of him he knows it, because he  _ had _ been the one to instigate it, and he won’t deny that he hadn’t been aggressive in going after what he’d wanted that night. He’d interrupted an otherwise normal conversation and proposed that Smith take him upstairs to fuck the life out of him, in fact, without caring what his goddamn name was at the time, but in his mind, in the end and because of who Smith is, it just doesn’t fucking  _ matter _ . 

 

It means nothing when Smith had still withheld his name on purpose because he’d wanted to manipulate him and had probably thought that Levi wouldn’t have slept with him otherwise, and he can’t believe that this rat bastard is seriously trying to turn things around on him all of a sudden after he’d wasted money and time over the past two weeks trying to convince him he wasn’t an asshole. As far as he’s concerned, Levi thinks then, he is and this is just that final piece of evidence he’d been looking for to feel that it had been proven, because what Smith had done is a really shitty, disgusting thing to do no matter how you looked at it. However, instead of feeling like he’d won and that this argument is fucking over with, he actually just feels embarrassed again, and...and  _ hurt _ . 

 

_ Fuck _ , he thinks. Fuck, fuck,  _ fuck _ , he shouldn’t have come there. He shouldn’t have bothered, or listened to Smith at all, or even considered that he might be telling the truth — which was what he’d done when he’d emailed him back the first time after swearing to himself not to. Why had he acted like such a fool,  _ again?  _ Was it because he’d still wanted some way to excuse his idiocy before, or his persistent, annoying lust? Maybe, but the reason is irrelevant at that point. He needs to go or he’s just going to become even more of an embarrassment than he already is, because everything is starting to be _ painful _ again and he has no one to blame for it but himself. 

 

“Fuck you.” He says then, in a quiet voice that is a far cry from how he’d been angrily shouting earlier. “Go to hell.”

 

He wants to say more, to blow up again and tell Smith exactly what an insensitive cocksucker he is because of what he’d just said in extreme detail, but he finds that he can’t, because he doesn’t think he’d be able to hide how he truly feels and he doesn’t want to give the bastard the satisfaction of knowing that he’d made him feel like shit. Unfortunately, he’s not quite sure he’d succeeded with what he’d said already a few seconds ago, but either way, because of that, he ends up just shaking his head in disbelief, scowling and huffing and stepping forward to stride right out of the fucking room. The fastest path to the door naturally takes him in front of Smith, though  — in between him and the laptop — and much to his chagrin, the asshole  _ dares _ to reach out and grab his wrist as soon as he passes to stop him.

 

“Wait!” He says too, standing up to face Levi as he whirls around in alarm. 

 

He looks, wide-eyed, at where Smith is holding onto him, and feels so much renewed fury that he jerks his arm away violently enough for the man to raise his own hands in self-defense.

 

“Get your fucking hands  _ off me!”  _ Levi practically snarls then too, because what the  _ fuck?  _

 

Was this shithead serious? Had he really just grabbed him, _touched_ _him without his permission_ , after basically trying to excuse how he’d knowingly played him for a fool just because Levi had ‘come onto him first?’ He had, Levi knows, because his wrist is burning from the feel of Smith’s fingers on him even through his suit jacket and shirt, and if he tries that again, Levi is seriously going to deck him in the face as hard as he fucking can — and this time he _means_ it. 

 

“Sorry.” Smith says though, thankfully remaining still and honestly now sounding just a bit flustered. Gone is his pissed off tone and the vaguely unsympathetic look in his eye, Levi realizes then, because even though he doesn’t really give a shit, the only thing he can see now in the man’s face that he understands is regret. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done that. I shouldn’t have said that either, and I didn’t mean it. It doesn’t excuse what happened, and it was absolutely the wrong thing to say and I understand if you want to go. I won’t stop you again, but...please, Levi, can you give me just one more chance to fully explain?” 

_ Fully explain, _ Levi thinks? As in, there’s more to the bullshit excuses he’s been giving him? Naturally, his first thought is to give Smith the middle finger and leave, because he’s got a lot of nerve asking him that after what he’d just said and done. Yeah, he’d apologized, but does he really expect Levi to believe that he means it, and that he’s not just pretending to be sympathetic and reasonable and honest so that he can butter him up again for his plans? Perhaps, Levi thinks, or perhaps not. Regardless, despite the fact that he knows he should just leave, he finds himself remaining in place instead of storming out, eyeing Smith up and down thoughtfully because...well, there  _ had _ just been something in his voice that had given him pause.

 

He’d sounded...vulnerable, Levi realizes then. He’d kind of looked it too, and had suddenly started to seem in no way like the confident, suave guy that Levi had been charmed by two weeks ago. Instead, he’s acting kind of desperate and is now staring at Levi imploringly with open guilt on his face, and even though he knows it could all be an act, for some reason he just can’t help but be curious about what Smith has to say.

 

“...fine.” He mumbles then, watching Smith carefully as his eyes widen a bit — in surprise, like he really hadn’t expected Levi to agree — and he gives him a firm nod. “Spit it out. I won’t interrupt you this time, but if I think it’s all bullshit I  _ am _ going to leave, and if you contact me again, I’m going to call the fucking cops and tell them you’re stalking me.”

 

“Alright. That’s fair.”

 

Levi says nothing in response to that, and just stares expectantly. He crosses his arms and makes sure that his expression remains steely and absolutely unmoved, and watches as Smith swallows and straightens up, eyeing Levi thoughtfully for a moment as if he’s trying to figure out how to start. 

 

“Alright.” He repeats again, while Levi just raises a single, unimpressed eyebrow. “I hope none of this makes me sound like a creep, but the truth is...well, here it is: from the moment I first saw your picture online, Levi, I just found you attractive. I didn’t dwell on it, really, but every time I went to your office I always hoped that I’d run into you. That never happened, but when I finally did see you in person, you nearly took my breath away. You were even more gorgeous standing there in front of me, and after you waved, I wanted to go introduce myself right then and there. However, you were busy like I said, so I didn’t, and there was never another opportunity until the night of the fundraiser.”

 

“...wait.” Levi utters when Smith pauses, barely managing to speak above a whisper because...well, what the  _ fuck _ had he just said? A lot of shit, he thinks, but it was all so far from anything that he could have expected that he honestly almost can’t comprehend it. He’s basically thunderstruck and confused, and honestly feels like he has emotional whiplash from being rageful and unamused a few seconds ago but now hearing things that are good —  _ if _ Smith is to be believed, anyway. Had Levi heard him right in the first place, though? Had Smith really said he’d thought Levi was  _ hot? _ Was he...was he actually trying to tell him that he’d approached him because he’d just wanted to fuck, like Levi had already considered earlier but dismissed as being impossible?  _ “What?” _

 

“I saw you on stage, and I decided that I couldn’t leave that night without talking to you. I’ve thought about you on and off since that day in the lobby, but still, I didn’t approach you with the intention of trying to sleep with you. I wouldn’t have ever expected that you’d even want that, as I wasn’t even sure that you’d be willing to talk to me in the first place.”

 

“What? Why wouldn’t I  _ want _ to talk to you before all of this?”

 

“Because it’s like I said before: we’re in competition. I didn’t know how you felt about me, but I remembered how you’d waved and thought that maybe you already knew who I was, and that was why you’d done that in the first place. I’d wondered if you would’ve waved at me if I’d just been a random man, and although now I understand that you weren’t waving at me at all, I suppose I just hoped that you’d recognize me because I was nervous that you’d turn me away.”

 

“So...so you fucking—

 

“I decided I’d take a chance at the fundraiser. I was happy that you agreed to let me buy you a drink, but again, I  _ swear _ that I hadn’t gone over there to try and seduce you for any nefarious purposes, or even at all. I admit that I flirted with you, or at least that I  _ tried _ and maybe thought about it a little, because...well, I hope you don’t mind me saying this, but you looked very nice in your tux. Still, though, I’d only just intended to talk to you, but you...ah—

 

“I told you to fuck me?”

 

“...yes.”

 

Smith utters the word in a thick sounding voice — a short statement that comes right before his eyes lower to give Levi’s body a quick once over. He can’t help it, apparently, even though he tears them away a second later, closes his lids, and draws his brows down tightly in what is probably frustration and guilt, but Levi isn’t angry. No, instead of that he’s now transfixed with Smith, and can feel himself starting to become consumed with all of the lust and fucking excitement he’d been trying to hold back over the past two weeks. He’d been standing there towards the end of Smith’s explanation, in fact, with his lips parted and wet because he’d licked them, on  _ purpose _ , while gazing up at him with hooded eyes — all because the man had seemingly just confirmed that he felt those same things about Levi too.

 

In fact, Levi thinks then, if what he’s saying is true, Smith finds him...well,  _ fuckable _ , enough so that even  _ if _ he supposedly hadn’t started a conversation to do that, he certainly had no problem actually sticking it up his ass, and had been weak to Levi’s eager and wanton temptations. Even if he hadn’t admitted  _ exactly _ that Levi could infer that it was the case, but does he believe him? Does he think that Smith is telling him the honest truth then, that even though he hadn’t told Levi his name he hadn’t been doing it with ill intentions in mind? He wants to, he thinks then, he really actually does because it would relieve him of a lot of stress, but unfortunately, he still feels that on several different levels he just can’t yet be sure. 

 

First, he knows that he’d considered this very thing earlier in Smith’s own lobby but had told himself there was no way he could be right, as he couldn’t see Smith actually considering Levi to be all the things that he’d just said to him then — words like  _ gorgeous _ and  _ breathtaking _ , which no man has ever really said to him before — much less that he’d found him fucking pretty enough or whatever after seeing him in his lobby that he’d ended up thinking about him for basically a year. It seems ridiculous, and the other problem is still the same, persistent one that he’d had this whole time: how can he be sure that this isn’t just another trick? After all that he’d heard and knows about Smith, Levi has no doubt that the man is a good liar. But is this really all an act? 

 

He’d seemed sincere just now, Levi thinks, and had continued to come across as vulnerable and open. Again, he thinks about how different Smith had just sounded from the night at the hotel too, when perhaps he’d just been trying to impress him in the hopes that he’d spark some kind of interest. If he’s telling him the truth Levi can’t fault him for that, he supposes, because it’s not an abnormal thing to do to a certain extent, and by all intents and purposes he’d just bared a lot to Levi — things that Levi is quite sure he could use against him in some way if he was that type of guy and actually sat down and thought about it. He’s not, and he wouldn’t, but in the end, he thinks that he’s just going to have to take the time to consider it, or at least just the part about Smith’s real intentions behind his flowery, flattering words.

 

He needs to go home and sleep on it, he thinks, to consider everything while he’s not standing right in front of the man, but to be honest, in that moment, Levi finds that he suddenly, really does not fucking consider it all that important anymore. Instead, he’s too wrapped up in how his frustrating, persistent desire for Smith had basically just been validated, because even if Levi can’t decide yet whether he trusts him or not — or whether he really thinks Erwin is 100% sincere that there is nothing behind his compliments except compliments — he feels pretty certain that the man  _ does _ want him in some way. It had been clear in how he’d looked at Levi after he had reminded him of what he’d said a moment ago, of how he’d told Smith to fuck him at the hotel, because there had been real, lustful heat behind his eyes that made Levi recall the way he’d eyed him posessively back at the bar.

 

Not only that, Levi sees now, but he’s flushed. His cheeks are pink, and...well, Levi supposes that it might actually be extremely easy to confirm this part of things even if he can’t be sure of everything else. If he’s right about Smith’s desire, though, can’t he just...sleep with him while being on guard for any more potential bullshit, now that he already  _ knows  _ he could be a rat? 

 

“But you  _ did  _ want to have sex with me though?” He decides to ask with that in mind, finding that although Smith had implied such a thing, he wants to hear him say it out loud before he does anything else. Of course, at that point, he kind of doesn’t expect Smith to say no at all, which is probably what is causing his heart to skip in the beginnings of unrestrained excitement as he stares up into Smith’s face. “That night at the hotel?”

 

For a second, Smith doesn’t answer him, perhaps because he hadn’t anticipated that to be Levi’s first  _ real  _ response after what he’d told him. Then, though,  _ then _ he swallows and noticeably lets his eyes rove over Levi’s body again — more confidently this time, because Levi had stepped forward once and has no doubt that his interest is written all over his face. 

 

“Yes.” Smith replies then, again speaking in a thick voice that is now tinged with...well, with  _ arousal _ , as if he’d barely been holding it back all this time like him. “Although I wasn’t—

 

“Yeah, I know. You weren’t trying. But what about now?”

 

“Now?”

 

“Yeah. Do you still want to fuck me now, even though you aren’t trying? Tell me the truth, Smith.”

 

Again, Smith pauses. He seems to think about his answer — or maybe how Levi will respond to it — but after a few moments, he apparently decides that the truth, as Levi had requested and no matter how dangerous, is now what he should say regardless of anything else. 

 

“Yes. Very much.”

 

Levi’s gut twists with something hot. ‘Very much’ had nearly sent a shiver down his spine, particularly since Smith’s tone had gone low and smooth, and the  _ last _ time Levi had heard it like that it had been murmured into his ear while the man had been inside him.

 

“Even though I yelled at you?” Levi continues though, because honestly,  _ objectively _ , this is kind of ridiculous and  _ maybe _ even a little crazy.

 

He’d just  _ screamed _ at Smith, he thinks; they’d just fought and had an argument and he’d called Smith every name in the book, and how had the irascible, stressful air in the room turned into something so heated and sexual so quickly? The atmosphere is now like that, he notices then — so thick that Levi swears he could cut the tension with a knife — as if someone had flipped a switch and the spark between them, the one that had blossomed at the hotel, had been reignited again, returning in full force from perhaps the moment that Levi had started to let some of his walls back down in front of Smith. 

 

That was what had been holding it all back, of course, but now that he’s allowing himself to feel the chemistry between them, now that they’re  _ talking  _ about it, it’s like the other emotions they’d been experiencing — the anger and the frustration and the hurt — have just converted into lust, and the fact that they had all been running so high in the first place has just made it that much more intense.

 

“Even though I called you a bunch of names?” Levi keeps going then, however, because Smith hasn’t yet answered, and seems torn between doing so and thinking that this could be some kind of a trap.

 

“Well…” He finally starts in response to that though, appearing to suddenly relax after he’d looked Levi over once more and apparently come to the conclusion that he’s not going to bite his head off or kill him. He even smiles, Levi sees then, but in a way that is small and wry enough for Levi to raise an eyebrow — one that is joined by the other after Smith continues, and briefly gives Levi the thought that Smith might have been a bit presumptuous about not getting himself murdered. “In the spirit of being honest, I admit that I was starting to feel a bit frustrated about that. I understood why you were angry at me, and I knew I needed to respect your feelings. However, I wanted to explain myself too, and...you  _ did  _ turn out to be more difficult to deal with than I might have thought. I’m not used to that, but for whatever reason, it just seems to make me want you even more.”

 

_ What?  _ Levi thinks, automatically wrinkling his nose and making a disgruntled face at the word ‘difficult.’ Smith had said other things, of course, and in that moment Levi supposes he can understand his perspective too, but...is he serious?  _ He _ is difficult to deal with? What the fuck does he mean, and how the hell can he even say that shit when all of this had been  _ his _ fault to begin with? He’s the one who’d started it and then pestered Levi until he’d marched himself over to his office in a fury, and if he feels so bad about all of it, Levi thinks, and he’s telling the truth, then why hadn’t he just admitted that shit to Levi about finding him hot at the start? Why had he been so weird and vague, and wasted his time trying to get Levi to meet up with him in person which had only made him more angry?

 

_ That _ was fucking frustrating too, and Smith has a lot of goddamn nerve saying that after trying to get Levi to forgive him. Even after everything that he’d told him he now he feels a flash of annoyance at being called ‘difficult’ and what  _ he _ sees as Smith’s smug smirk, but...well, it’s nowhere near enough to temper his urges this time, which is why he doesn’t even bother to question his last remark when he can’t deny that he’s in the same boat too. After all, as he’d started to think earlier,  _ objectively _ , Smith should not be standing there calling him gorgeous and beautiful and admitting he wants to have sex with Levi again after he’d been such a huge asshole all this time — perhaps for no reason if it  _ does _ turn out Smith is not lying — and similarly, Levi had spent the last two and a half weeks lusting over the man while also  _ vehemently _ hating him. 

 

True enough, the brief stab of irritation he’d felt at Smith describing him as _anything_ but delightful doesn’t make him want the fucker any less either, he realizes then, because instead of that, he actually just wants to throw Smith down roughly onto the couch so that he can shut him up with his lips — something that is weird, and confusing, but that he now figures is not going to go away until he fucking does something about it. No, there’s no way in hell he can leave there after all of this without finally getting what he fucking wants, because his urges are driving him crazy and _Smith_ is driving him crazy, and he decides he can’t just fucking stand there talking anymore, not when his heart is pounding in his chest and a flush has begun to spread its way over his body. 

 

His lower belly, his cock, are responding to the fact that he’s turned on and the urgency has nearly overtaken everything else too, and now that he realizes he has no more immediate questions or scathing comments to make, he swears that if he does not get his hands on Smith he is going to fucking burst. Yes, whether Smith likes it or not they’re just going to have to figure out the rest of this shit later, because he’s wanted this, _needed_ it, yearned for it and thought about it for over fourteen days — about how Smith’s skin had slid over his at the hotel, about the way they’d moved together, and kissed and touched until they’d both come and collapsed in each other’s arms — and now that he’s effectively given himself permission to have it, his impatience is essentially _unbearable_. 

 

Still, though, as Levi glances up at him — Smith has had the decency to let his smile fade away, and looks like he’s wondering if he’d fucked up again or not — he can’t help but shake his head incredulously, unable to let him get away with the ‘difficult’ comment even as he steps forward to close the remaining distance between them.

 

“Yeah, well...guess what?” He murmurs, staring up into Smith’s eyes before he grabs his shirt and pulls him down to his level. “Maybe I’m just difficult because you  _ piss me the hell off.” _

 

Before Smith can respond, Levi just... _kisses_ him, jerking him the rest of the way forward so suddenly that Smith honestly almost loses his balance. Their lips meet, of course, quite hard because of the force that Levi had just used to pull him closer, and Smith makes a muffled noise of surprise — _mmfp!_ — which might have been kind of fucking amusing to Levi if he wasn’t so goddamn, overwhelmingly horny right then. It’s so much, he thinks to himself, as finally feeling Smith’s mouth against his own again seems to have shredded the last, single ounce of control that he’d been trying to hold onto, because _fuck_ , he needs Smith _so fucking bad_ that he can’t stand it _,_ and the relief that he feels upon the realization that he’s probably going to get it, that he’s now able to fully admit that he wants it without _hating_ himself for it too is...well, it’s akin to a dam bursting open, allowing all of his pent up lust to rush through him like a river. 

 

As such, it’s no wonder that he’d practically just thrown himself at Smith, he thinks, or that he’s slinging his arms around his neck now and opening his mouth and fucking  _ moaning  _ under his breath when — after Smith’s one second or so of shock finally passes — Smith parts his lips too, and suddenly jerks Levi closer by roughly grabbing onto his waist. He holds him there for a moment, Levi feels, and then fully pulls him into his arms, kissing him back exitably and hungrily and in such an all consuming way that Levi might have been overwhelmed if he wasn’t giving as good as he got. Even so, they’re both panting from the effort in seconds, frantically touching each other and absentmindedly pulling at clothing already which  _ certainly  _ doesn’t help either, but it’s not like it’s a bad thing when it just means that their embrace ends up being that much more intense, feverish, and electric.

 

It’s all fucking exhilarating for Levi, to be honest, and he can’t help but dig his fingers into Smith’s skin through his shirt almost as hard as he can, gasping, however, when Smith bites at his bottom lip in response — nipping him there, sharply — and then breaks away, but only so that he can latch his mouth onto Levi’s throat and grab at the top of his thigh. He’d done that because Levi had just thrown his leg around him even while tilting his head back and reaching for Smith’s hair, clutching at it so that he can hold on, close his eyes, and pause to allow Smith to just lick and kiss at his neck because _all_ of it feels so fucking good. Despite that, though, his brief lapse in action doesn’t last long before he’s driven by the desire to lay his hands on Smith’s gorgeous, naked body again, and he finds himself reaching out for his belt, feeling absolutely _desperate_ all of a sudden to get him undressed so that he can touch his bare skin, squeeze at his muscles, and most importantly of all, pull out that long, hard, _perfectly_ thick—

 

“Levi,  _ wait.” _ Smith gasps suddenly, leaving Levi very,  _ very  _ fucking confused when everything abruptly stops and Smith loosens his hold on him, and stumbles a step back, wide eyed and red faced and looking at Levi with an expression full of alarm. 

 

“Wait?” He mumbles in response, feeling uncertain for a moment, and disoriented.

 

One second, they’d been furiously making out and his mind had only been focused on that, and the next Smith had pulled away so sharply that it was like he’d been fucking electrocuted or something. What the hell? What just happened? What’s  _ wrong? _ Does Smith have reservations about this, and only just now realized it, as if he’d lost himself and then been snapped out of it by Levi’s hand getting near his dick? It’s either that, Levi thinks — because things aren’t exactly straightforward between them,  _ obviously  _ — or he’s about to get flat out fucking rejected, refused after  _ all  _ of that and potentially told to get the hell out of Smith’s office. 

 

Already, Levi can feel the humiliation and anger building back up at just the fucking  _ idea  _ of something like that happening after he’d flung himself at the man and decided to momentarily forgive his transgressions, but thankfully, it’s the former issue, and Levi is so relieved about the fact that he doesn’t have to renew his promise to find someone to shit in Smith’s lobby after all that he barely even blinks when he confirms it a second later. 

 

“What are you doing?” Smith says, somehow appearing aroused and absolutely  _ bewildered _ at the same time.  “I—

 

“Just forget about it.” Levi replies instantly, using the pause in their embrace to grab Smith again and turn him towards the couch.

 

“What?”

 

“We’ll talk about it later.”

 

“Later?”

 

“Yeah, come  _ on _ , fuck. Don’t worry about it. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you fucking me again since that night at the hotel.”

 

Levi punctuates his words by giving Smith a small shove in the direction of the couch, watching in satisfaction as the backs of his legs hit the front of it and he abruptly sits down on his own free will. He’s still gaping at Levi like he’d just slapped him across the face or something though, but whatever. Whether it’s because Smith is confused or because he’s surprised to hear Levi say that just doesn’t mean shit to Levi right then, and Smith doesn’t protest either when he quickly sheds his suit jacket, follows him to the couch, and climbs on to straddle his lap — at least not right that second, anyway. 

 

It’s only  _ after  _ Levi has planted both his hands around Smith’s head on the cushion so that he can lean forward to kiss him again that he finally speaks back up, although his own palms have also reached out to hold onto Levi’s waist too, and it’s clear that he’s struggling not to just throw in the towel and give in.

 

“No...wait.” He says again, sounding so strained and anguished that he even has to say the word ‘wait’ in the first place that...well, that Levi  _ almost  _ feels like he could laugh. “...you were angry with me for what I did that night. I can’t. I won’t do this again if you’re not—

 

“Not okay with it?” Levi murmurs in response, shifting a bit on his knees until their hips are pressed flush together, on purpose,  _ hopefully  _ so that Smith will without a doubt be able to feel his hard-on. As a result, he _ definitely _ realizes that Smith has an erection too, and he has to bite down on his tongue so he won’t moan when another sharp stab of lust abruptly cuts through his belly. He wants to squirm, he thinks then, to let go of his control again and grind in Smith’s lap while he fucking gropes at his ass with his huge hands, but he refrains for the moment, stopping short after holding back an impatient sigh and looking into Smith’s eyes to continue. “I’m pretty sure I’m okay with it, big guy.”

 

Smith stares at him — meeting his gaze, and breathing hard through his mouth — and looks like he can’t even process his words, obviously still having some sort of internal conflict that Levi  _ supposes  _ he can understand. Yes, he thinks, he can see why Smith might be confused after being told that he pisses Levi off before immediately being kissed, especially when Levi hasn’t yet given him a real response in regards to what he’d confessed earlier either. Still, though, Smith  _ has _ to see that Levi wants him because he feels like he’s made that abundantly clear in the past few minutes, and as far as he’s concerned anyway,  _ this _ is his response for now, although he’s not going to take things any further until Smith shows him that it’s okay.

 

_ He _ knows better than to seduce someone that might not actually fucking want it, he thinks then, which is actually what he suspects Smith may be trying to prove too, because throwing all caution to the wind after what had happened at the hotel would be stupid, as would making the same mistake twice if Smith really,  _ really _ does want Levi to believe him. Thankfully, though, Levi’s newfound lackadaisical attitude about that shit hasn’t changed any since it had started, but what the hell does he have to do to show Smith that?  Apparently, he ends up finding out, not much else, which is good, because as understanding as he’s trying to be about Smith’s skepticism, he’s also starting to get annoyed, mostly because he’s impatient and...well, he would like to know if he’s wasting his time there or not and if he needs to go back to being angry. 

 

“Fucking shit, Smith.” He ends up blurting out after another five or so seconds of silence, sighing so loudly that his breathe actually ruffles a loose strand of Smith’s hair. “Would you just hurry the hell up and—

 

Levi had been about to say ‘kiss me,’ but his bitching is interrupted by Smith — who had noticeably glanced down at Levi’s bulge to blatantly stare at it, as if he had to see the evidence of Levi’s arousal with his own eyes to fully believe it — who just...fucking relents, and reaches forward with both hands to grab at Levi’s face so that he can do just that. He jerks him forward, Levi feels, and leans away from the couch all at the same time before he can even react, which again causes their lips to meet,  _ hard _ , while Levi finds that it’s now  _ his _ turn to be surprised. Naturally, though, he gets over it as soon as he realizes what has happened and exhales into Smith’s mouth in relief, reaching up to again fist his hands into the man’s shirt so that he can roughly shove him back into the cushions. 

 

He presses himself against him like that and then immediately parts his lips, and happily enough, their excitable embrace from before picks up right where they had left off, continuing on as if it had never even stopped or been interrupted in the first place. They kiss each other eagerly like that, deeply and desperately and in a way that makes Levi vaguely think he wouldn’t be surprised if his mouth was bruised in the morning — not that he would give a shit or that he does now, as he’s far too lost in the movements of Smith’s lips to fucking care. He just tastes good,  _ really  _ good, and even the way that he kisses Levi is amazing. It’s ridiculous, to be honest, that each one they share threatens to make him tremble and weak-kneed when no man has  _ ever _ made him feel like that before, but whatever, he’s not going to allow himself to completely melt, especially not when he’s snapped out of his reverie by Smith reaching around him so that he can plant both hands right over his ass. 

 

He palms at it, Levi feels, squeezing and kneading in exactly the rough, aggressive, greedy way that Levi had wanted him to, but even so, although he does arch his back to give him more of a handful, he wishes to touch Smith too, and does not skip a beat before he slides a hand between their bodies to finish unbuckling his pants. He works at it hurriedly and pulls the belt loose and then...essentially just ends up jerking the rest of that shit open, as he is impatient, and doesn’t care right then if he ruins Smith’s button or zipper in his determination to get to his fucking cock. The bastard can afford more pants, he muses to himself, because he’s rich and Levi’s desire to hold his erection is far more important than a pair of trousers,  _ especially  _ since he hadn’t really gotten the opportunity to toy with him the last time they’d been in bed. 

 

No, that night Smith had given him so much attention that he hadn’t been able to return it, but now that they’re doing this again, Levi is determined to make the most of what  _ he  _ sees as a second chance. Really, he just wants to make Smith moan, but as soon as he wraps his fingers around his cock, Levi actually groans himself when he feels it against his palm, hot and heavy and just as big as he remembers it. Needless to say, Levi doesn’t hesitate to immediately give Smith one good, firm stroke after teasing at the head with his thumb, noticing how Smith’s lips falter a bit and he inhales more sharply because of the friction. He makes a small noise in his chest too, Levi hears, in response to another pump of his hand, and it only takes several more after that before Smith’s mouth breaks away from Levi’s and he ends up with his head tipped back against the couch. 

 

That allows Levi to shove his face into his neck so that he can kiss and suck at the skin there, however — high up on his throat, under his jaw,  _ without  _ being gentle, because some part of him wants to leave marks like the shithead had done to him before — while he continues stroking him, using a somewhat slow, steady pace, and relishing in how he’s already spread his legs and started trying to lift his hips underneath Levi for more. Of course, Levi can’t say that he’s just staying still either, because he’s not, because by then, Smith has managed to shove a hand inside his pants too, and worked two of his fingers in between his ass cheeks in an effort to rub and tease at his entrance. The stimulation is nice, naturally, and honestly fucking relieving in some kind of way, and as a result, Levi has now sat up onto his knees and stuck his backside out for more, ending up tearing his mouth away from Smith’s neck to gasp when he roughly presses down with his fingers. 

 

Still, though, he doesn’t stop stroking Smith for one second, ever, and his persistence is rewarded when he twists his hand around the tip and Smith suddenly lets out a low moan. 

 

“Levi.” He breathes too, speaking loudly enough for Levi to hear, of course, although he only registers it enough to answer with a ‘hmn?’ sound because he’s now busy licking and biting at Smith’s ear with his teeth. “That feels good.”

 

Those words get more of Levi’s attention, and he briefly pauses, allowing himself to feel a small amount of satisfaction that he seems to have Smith right in the palm of his hand — literally, in fact. “Does it?”

 

_ “Yes.” _

 

“Are you gonna come?”

 

“Not yet.”

 

“Not yet? Are you sure?”

 

“I am...but if you keep this up I might not be for long.”

 

Levi lets out another hum at that, and pretends to be in thought after going back to kissing at Smith’s skin. Then, however, he pauses, and stops stroking him, and presses his lips to Smith’s ear again before speaking.

 

“Well, that’d be a fucking shame.” He murmurs, aiming to tease as he suddenly recalls something that Smith had said to  _ him  _ the last time they’d done this. “Don’t tell me you can’t fucking handle it.”

 

At that, even though Levi gives him a slight squeeze, Smith is silent for a moment, and his delayed reaction causes Levi to pull back a bit, allowing him to take in Smith’s flushed face and full, kiss swollen lips. Clearly, Levi sees, he is affected by what he had been doing to him just now, but judging by his expression, he's only taking a second to recall the circumstances that had led to them having this exchange before. Sure enough, Levi can pinpoint the exact moment that he remembers it because of how his eyes focus onto him and he suddenly smiles, letting out a loud bark of laughter before...well, before Levi finds himself on his back, pinned there by Smith who had abruptly pushed him off his lap, flipped him over, and climbed on top of him so that he can press him down into the cushions. 

 

“You  _ know _ I can handle it.” He tells him then, while Levi, who had  _ obviously  _ been a bit taken aback by the change in position, ends up stilled even further when his heart flutters stupidly at Smith’s sudden lighthearted and carefree behavior.

 

_ Fuck no _ , he thinks then, however,  _ refusing  _ to acknowledge the feeling and...and channeling his determination  _ not to do so _ into grabbing at Smith’s head even as he ducks down to press their lips together. Squeezing his eyes shut, he tells himself again that there will be  _ none  _ of that, and furrows his brows with focus and fists his fingers around two chunks of blonde hair to pull him closer, eagerly returning the hard, insistent, rough kiss on the mouth that  Smith had just leaned over to give him — probably in an effort to prove what he’d said before Levi began to match his exuberance with his own, moving his legs and wrapping them around Smith’s waist even as he slides both arms around his neck too.

 

Hoping to keep Smith there so that they can hurry and get on with the show, Levi ends up frowning when that doesn’t happen, when just as he’d started to lose himself to the moment again, Smith suddenly pulls away without warning, shifting so that he can sit up because apparently he wants to undo Levi’s shirt. Levi realizes it when Smith’s eyes and fingers go to the buttons right away, and he hastily starts popping them open, right before before he dives back down to plant his lips over the top of Levi’s chest. Excitedly, Smith kisses his skin like that, leaving wet marks and moving south to bite at a nipple before he reaches his belly, proceeding to mouth at him there too, all while his hands go even lower so that they can start working at Levi’s belt. 

 

Within seconds, he gets it open like he had his shirt, and needless to say, Levi has already started squirming and sighing from his touch, feeling his anticipation and impatience suddenly skyrocket now that he’s no longer distracted by holding onto Smith’s cock. Instead, his mind focuses on one thing and one thing only, and having Smith between his legs just makes Levi feel desperate to have him inside of him, although unsurprisingly, his attitude soon changes when — rather than explore Levi’s body for what had felt like an  _ eternity  _ the last time they’d done this — Smith gets his pants open, kisses past his belly, and suddenly wraps his lips around the head of Levi’s cock.

“Oh _ fuck.”  _ Levi exclaims as soon as he feels it, arching up off the couch so that he inadvertently pushes himself further into Smith’s mouth and bumps at the back of his throat.  _ “Shit— _

 

Levi’s swearing comes from the fact that he’s almost startled — Smith had moved so quickly to pull his dick out that he hadn’t even really had time to ponder what he might be doing — but also because the abrupt, initial sensation of pleasure is so intense that it causes his head to fall back against the couch, hitting it so hard that he’s thankful they’re on cushions, because if they hadn’t been...well, he might have honestly knocked himself the fuck out. Blessedly, that doesn’t happen, although it still takes him a few seconds to get his bearings before the sensations dull a bit and he can look up again, moving to lift his head as fast as possible because he really,  _ really  _ needs to see what the fuck Smith is doing between his legs. 

 

Of course, Levi — whose eyes have gone impossibly wide —  _ knows  _ what he’s doing, or what he at least  _ believes  _ he’s doing because he’s suddenly wondering if this is all a fucking dream, but still needs to see it, to let it soak in, because Erwin Smith, President and CEO of Smith Industries, really is actually sucking his dick despite the fact that he almost can’t fathom it. Watching him like that, with his cheeks hollowed out and his mouth completely full, Levi thinks that it’s a miracle he doesn’t come right then and there, particularly when its just...so fucking warm and wet and pleasurable, and the sight of what is happening between his legs seems like something straight out of one of his fantasies.

 

The only thing missing, in fact, is Smith being on his knees instead of half-hanging off the couch, but obviously that’s not a loss that actually matters, because it’s still incredible, although as much as he would  _ love  _ to stare at Smith and memorize every single movement he makes the entire time that he’s doing this, he honestly can’t, because it’s not long before the tip of his cock pushes past his throat and Levi finds himself moaning, unable to keep his head up any longer when every fiber of his being is telling him to just close his eyes and  _ enjoy  _ it.  _ Shit _ , he thinks anyway though, shit,  _ shit _ , he still wants Smith to fuck him but this feels so  _ good  _ that he’s not sure whether he’d have the strength to stop him if he were to get too close, which is a sentiment that is apparently shared by his hips, as they have already begun to lift up on their own towards Smith’s open mouth for more. 

 

That just causes Smith to suck harder, though, and Levi to get louder, and before he knows it, a minute or so later, he’s basically lost himself, grabbing at Smith’s hair because he needs something to hold onto. Gasping, he winds his fingers into the blonde strands and feels no qualms about pushing Smith’s head down lower while he bobs between his legs, although it’s not like Smith seems to mind either, because he groans at the somewhat rough treatment and even falters a bit when Levi gives a harsh  _ tug _ , exhaling loudly through his nose while his fingers find the skin of Levi’s thigh and press down hard to dig in. Eventually, however, he does end up moving a hand away so that he can start stroking Levi while sucking him off too, and begins to bob up and down without restraint, seemingly spurred on as Levi continues to pull and fist at his hair when the sensations grow more intense. 

 

Fuck, he really is going to fucking come soon if Smith keeps this up, he thinks then, because he can feel it already: the tension, building in his belly as he squirms more and spreads his thighs taut, moaning and panting and...well,  _ whimpering  _ at the thought of spilling his release down Erwin Smith’s throat. The vision flashes through his mind before he can even fucking help it, naturally, and his hips jerk up hard without his permission,  _ almost  _ right as he imagines himself holding Smith’s head down and thrusting up into his mouth when he comes. He’d be forced to swallow all of it that way, Levi thinks, every single drop, and god, the picture of it — along with what Smith is still doing to him with his lips and tongue and  _ throat _ — just gets him that much closer to the edge. 

 

Perhaps predictably, however, before that can happen, Levi feels Smith pull off, causing his eyes to fly open again while he lifts his head off the couch cushion sharply. His movements are more out of surprise than anything else, he thinks, but it’s not like he could speak to voice anything anyway, as he’s now struck into silence by the sight of Smith, looking  _ debauched _ with his swollen lips, wet chin, and  _ yes _ , his ruined hair, sticking up at weird angles where Levi had grabbed it and resulting in him looking nothing like the perfect, well put together business man that he usually resembles. To be honest, it’s pretty fucking satisfying to think about it like that, Levi muses, and arousing, but still, it’s all he can do to hold back a whine when Smith ends up leaving the couch to walk back towards his desk. 

 

What the fuck is he doing, Levi thinks? Where is he going? Is he getting a condom? Fuck, Levi really,  _ really _ fucking hopes he’s getting a fucking condom and some fucking lube so that he can stick it in his ass, so much so that he shamelessly stares at Smith and palms at himself while he walks away, biting his lip and rubbing at his wet cock with his legs spread wide in anticipation. Of course, Smith watches him do it because he can barely seem to take his eyes off him, Levi notices, turning his head to glance at him twice over his shoulder as he heads toward his desk, and then repeatedly after that once he starts frantically digging around in one of his drawers, too. His eyes are bright and he’s basically leering at him, to be honest, but this time, instead of running his mouth to egg him on or anything like that, Levi just keeps his eyes locked with Smith’s as he touches himself until he finds what he’s looking for and returns. 

 

Thankfully, it  _ is  _ a tiny bottle of lube and a condom, and Smith doesn’t hesitate to climb back onto the couch and between Levi’s thighs, pushing his own pants off his ass before rolling the latex over his cock and slicking himself up. Once he’s satisfied with that, he then positions his wet fingers in between Levi’s legs and slips two of them inside easily enough, falling forward to mouth and kiss at his throat heatedly while he finds his prostate and immediately curls the digits into it. Predictably, Levi cries out at that, but most of the sound ends up swallowed by Smith’s lips, which have returned to Levi’s in an effort to seemingly mask whatever noises he might make as he continues to finger him. 

 

He does so hurriedly, Levi feels, quickly and persistently and in a manner that is honestly a bit rough —  _ not  _ that Levi has a problem with that, of course, because he doesn’t and is moaning and lifting his hips up for more — almost as if he’s just probing him to test the resistance and to essentially see how much he can go ahead and give him. Either way, Levi thinks, it betrays Smith’s own impatience for this, as does the way that he abruptly stops a moment or two later and removes his fingers, breaking the kiss so that he can instead breathe hot and heavy into Levi’s neck. He sounds almost desperate like that, to be honest, and he even seems to fumble a bit while shifting to position his cock in his hurry, although in the end, it doesn’t matter, because as much as Levi wants this too he ends up stopping Smith suddenly, reaching down to grab his wrist when he realizes something that he should have already thought of before. 

 

“Wait.” He says, sitting up and pushing Smith back a bit because...well, he doesn’t want to go any further like this. 

 

He wants it like before, he thinks then, as he  _ needs _ to feel Smith pounding into him from behind because he’s pretty sure he won’t stop craving it again if it doesn’t happen, but also probably,  _ mostly  _ because Smith had fucked him face to face before that one night was all over with and it had been entirely too intimate — particularly after what had happened to his feelings and how hurt he’d been when he’d thought everything had been fake. Even if it’s not now, he thinks, something still tells him that allowing Smith to see his face isn’t a fucking good idea, not when he still has no real clue how all of this is going to turn out, and when he refuses to do anything that might make his heart skip a beat like it had earlier. 

 

“Turn me over.” He tells Smith then, making his decision. “Fuck me from behind. Do it like before, as hard as you can. Come on.”

 

For a moment after Levi had stopped him, Smith had looked confused and slightly worried as if he’d perhaps thought that Levi had changed his mind. Now, though, his features have returned to something lustful — his lids lower heavily at his words, Levi sees — and he grabs at his thighs to hastily help turn him over, although it’s really just him pushing Levi onto his side and tossing him onto his stomach before he can even fucking do anything himself. Of course, the slightly rough treatment just excites Levi that much more, and with his breath already coming short from all of the anticipation, he reaches out to brace himself on the arm of the couch, effectively sticking his ass up while spreading his thighs as much as he can on the cushions. 

 

“Alright then.” Smith replies, in a voice that is nothing but a low rumble as he continues speaking, shifting to rub at Levi’s ass with one hand while again pressing his cock up to his entrance with the other. “That won’t be a problem, since I haven’t forgotten how much you were able to take.” 

 

With that, Smith pushes inside of him and any coherent response Levi might have let out just turns into a moan — one that is obviously loud, and that becomes the first of many as Smith immediately starts to work himself deeper into his ass. Levi helps, of course, and rocks backward a bit, although because Smith isn’t exactly going slow, he finds it becoming harder and harder to concentrate on his movements with every inch that slides further into him. No, he thinks then, apparently Smith is intent on remaining true to his word about recalling how much he’d been able to handle, although that’s fine because  _ Levi _ is fine, but Smith is big and the sensations are strong, and he ends up faltering before he bottoms out, trembling and gasping and wondering if he’d forgotten how to breathe by the time he’s filled to the brim. 

 

“Shit.” He swears too, feeling his cock twitch at the sensation of being full, so, so full and stretched that he’s sure he’s leaking onto the couch already.

 

He’s going to make a mess before this is all over with, he knows, but he can’t help it, just as he can’t stop himself from digging his nails into the piece of furniture so hard that it’s a wonder the cloth hasn’t torn. Unfortunately for the fabric, however, his grip only grows stronger when Smith actually starts thrusting too, pulling out and then pushing back in to establish a rhythm that is steady and powerful right off the bat. Indeed, Smith is driving his cock into him so hard already that Levi can’t help the way he’s moaning and making constant noise even though they’d basically just fucking started, although at that point, every sound he makes is muffled, as Smith had reached around to clap a palm over his mouth as soon as he’d snapped his hips against Levi’s ass and began to fucking move.

 

Levi, despite the fact that he is barely able to rationalize anything at that point, supposes he understands why, because he hadn’t locked the door when he’d come in, and every sound seems to echo around Smith’s stupidly gigantic office way too loudly. He probably _needs_ to be mostly silent because there are other people in this building that Smith surely does not want to scar for life — like that poor kid, Armin, his assistant — but it’s funny, as Levi would have bitten the bastard’s hand off if he had dared to touch him like this not even 30 minutes ago. He’d still been mad at him then, of course, but because all of that had faded, because it’s the opposite now and Smith covering his mouth is actually a massive turn on, Levi had just moved to tilt his head back right away, sucking two of Smith’s fingers into his mouth and continuing to stay like that while he fucks him.

 

It feels so good already, he thinks then, and Smith hasn’t even really gotten _that_ rough with him yet — although that soon changes, because he seems to grow more incensed far, far faster than he had the last time they’d done this, perhaps as a result of how he’d presumably been lusting after Levi’s ass over the past 2 weeks like Levi had been with his cock, or perhaps because he’s using this as an opportunity to release all of the frustration he’d admittedly experienced while dealing with Levi’s bullshit. Either way, Levi can’t say he cares in that moment, because he can obviously relate to being pent up, and if him vexing the shit out of Smith results in sex like this...well, there is no way in hell he’d ever complain about Smith pounding into him with the same hard, quick, and punishing pace that he’d had to _beg_ him to use while fucking him before. 

 

That’s what he’s doing now, Levi thinks, and it’s just what he needs, and he cannot imagine a situation where Smith seeming less in control of himself would  _ ever  _ be considered a turn  _ off _ . Instead, it’s the opposite, and he moans loud with every thrust around Smith’s fingers, arching his spine and eagerly moving back against him, enough so that his hips eventually start smacking up against Levi’s ass roughly. Before long, less than a few minutes after they’d fucking started, in fact, the way they’re moving together could only be described as something like ‘frantic’ or ‘rushed,’ all to the point that they can barely even keep the rhythm going smoothly — at least until Levi decides to push things further because he  _ always _ fucking does, anyway, and bites down sharply on Smith’s fingers, causing him to flinch and his cock to abruptly and unfortunately slip out, and Levi to end up whining and groaning in displeasure until Smith takes matters into his own hands to ensure it doesn’t happen again.

 

He reacts with determination, in fact, and like Levi’s behavior has antagonized him — he makes a disgruntled sound that is almost like a growl — and removes his hand from Levi’s mouth, quickly and decisively readjusting so that he can grab onto the back of his neck and shove his face down into a pillow. He holds him there, and at the same time guides himself back inside Levi’s ass so that he can pick up right where he’d left off, slamming his cock into him, all while Levi realizes he can’t move as much in this position, although that’s fine with him, as he’d just experienced a surge of arousal so strong that it had cut through his belly like lightning.  _ Oh fuck, _ he thinks then, moaning uncontrollably into the pillow, oh  _ god, _ Smith is grasping his neck tightly and holding him down and, to be quite honest, having his way with him, pounding into him so hard that if Smith wasn’t keeping him still his head probably would have been driven up against the arm of the couch. 

 

Considering that Smith  _ is  _ keeping him in place, however, while fucking him with his ass in the air — and grunting and groaning like he’s in the middle of running a damned marathon behind him — the downward angle is perfect enough to make Levi’s legs shake, while also ensuring that he starts to rapidly approach release within what feels like less than a few seconds. Really, it’s longer than that, although not by much because each pump of Smith’s cock causes pleasure to rocket up his spine and the tension to build tighter in his groin, but it’s not like he can say anything different about Smith, because Levi can tell that the intense, hurried pace is getting to him too. His movements, while coordinated and purposeful after he’d fucking pinned Levi down, are becoming less so and more and more jerky by the minute — unsurprising, really, as Levi cannot imagine either of them lasting for a drawn out period of time like this — and although Levi reaches under himself to fumble desperately around for his cock once he gets close and starts to jerk off, Smith is the one that is pushed over the edge first, perhaps finding himself overwhelmed in the end by Levi touching himself and letting out little whimpering noises with each of his thrusts. 

 

Either way, Smith comes suddenly with a loud, satisfied sounding groan that Levi  _ swears  _ anyone standing within 10 feet of the doors probably could have fucking heard — so much for keeping it down in there, Levi thinks — and falters from the force of his orgasm, causing his thrusts to slow, and to become erratic and soft, although still pleasurable enough to get Levi to release too, as he had already reached the point of no return by then due to the amount of tension inside him and the movements of his own hand. It’s less than 10 seconds after Smith, in fact, that he falls apart with a shaky moan, ending up trembling and making a mess in his palm, and gasping for air while he’s overtaken by several long waves of bliss. Still, he’s able to note that Smith had stopped completely by then — he sounds like he’s fucking dying behind him because of how he’s trying to catch his breath — although it doesn’t stop him from pulling out after a moment, and then gently grabbing onto Levi’s shoulder in an effort to turn him over. 

 

Levi, who has barely recovered enough to move on his fucking own by then much less resist, allows it, and ends up twisted onto his side so that Smith can see his face — for better or for worse at that point — and so that he can look at Smith too, noticing how he’s still staring at him with quite the lustful, heated expression. He just watches him like that for a moment, Levi notices,  _ intently _ , as if his arousal hasn’t subsided yet even though they’d both fucking finished, which is something that is proven in the next instance when he leans forward to capture Levi’s lips in a kiss. It sudden, and rough, and just as deep and hard as it is messy, but although Levi grabs at the back of Smith’s head to keep him in place for more, he pulls away just as quick, at least remaining close this time even as he suddenly grabs at the come covered hand Levi holds at his side.

 

“You know...it’s a shame that I wasn’t able to taste you earlier.” He says then, apparently referring to the blowjob he’d given him before, although Levi doesn’t even realize it until Smith suddenly presses his mouth to his palm and...well, begins to get rid of the  _ mess. _

 

Needless to say, Levi is so taken aback that he just lies there and stares at Smith’s face and what he’s doing with wide fucking eyes, watching as he takes the time to lap all of the come up, licking at his skin like a cat and even sliding each of Levi’s fingers into his mouth to ensure that he gets every drop _. _ Afterward, once he’s done, he kisses Levi again, fiercely, and obviously he fucking returns it, as even though he can taste himself on Smith’s tongue he doesn’t give a shit about that, not when what he’d just done had been dirty in all the right ways and...well, close enough to the thing Levi had fantasized about earlier. Because of that, despite the fact that he’d just had an orgasm, the demonstration is arousing enough for Levi’s gut to twist again hotly, although he’s tired and their embrace is unfortunately short-lived once more, mostly because they both haven’t even completely caught their breath yet and Levi suddenly starts to feel like he might overheat. 

 

“Dirty bastard.” He ends up mumbling then, in fact, pushing Smith away and off him, but only in a playful manner, because it’s not that he’s disgusted by Smith now and wants him gone or anything like that just yet, but because he’s sweating his balls off and he needs air, and he wants to pull his pants back up over his ass and roll all the way over to sprawl against the arm of the couch. 

 

He does just that, naturally, because it’s far more comfortable, and Smith — who is finally satisfied, apparently, since he’d gotten a mouthful of Levi’s come and now looks exhausted — practically collapses flat onto his back with one foot on the floor and the other bent at the knee, content, it seems, to just stare up at the ceiling for a few minutes before his head abruptly pops up to glance over at Levi.

 

“Are you alright?” He asks, as Levi muses that it’s a miracle he can understand him when he’s so busy taking in his visage.

 

He looks like a fucking mess, Levi thinks then, because Smith’s hair is absolutely  _ ridiculous _ , completely ruined with half of it sticking up from where Levi had been pulling on it and the other half glued to his forehead with sweat. The slight sheen of it covers his face and neck too and makes his skin look deliciously shiny, but he’s so red and flushed all over in general that someone could have honestly taken him to be feverish. The sight is a very nice one, Levi thinks then, although it’s really no wonder that his appearance is that bad when they’d just fucked like a pair of frantic teenagers while almost fully dressed in shitty, uncomfortable business suits with their shoes still on, for fuck’s sake. Does he look the same? Levi wonders at that thought and then about whether that was why Smith had asked him that question or not, because he can’t really think of another reason for it and had found it kind of odd.

 

Why  _ wouldn’t _ he be alright? It’s either he appears like he’d just fallen down a flight of stairs, Levi thinks, or Smith is so worried about Levi being mad at him again already that he has decided to inquire about his well being, as Levi has not, of course, forgotten about his prior hesitance and concern about doing this and everything else that had fucking happened in between. Apparently, though, despite Levi’s initial thoughts, the reason for Smith’s question turns out to be something else entirely, something that surprises him along with the gentle way that Smith actually asks when he fails to give him an answer.

 

“I wasn’t too rough, was I?” He says while Levi stays quiet, eyeing him with a softness and a concerned tone in his voice that is a far cry from...well, from how he’d been handling him not even five minutes ago like a ragdoll, or something.

 

Still, though, it wasn’t too much. It wasn’t too rough, and in fact, it was just right, so much so that Levi could have let out a bark of laughter at how  _ ridiculous  _ he finds the question. 

 

“You call that rough?” He says instead though, speaking in a teasing tone that for whatever reason, seems to instantly make Smith smile. “I don’t really mind, if you haven’t fucking noticed.”

 

“I have noticed. You’re very...aggressive. About what you want, I mean.”

 

“Yeah, so? You got a problem with that? You seemed to be enjoying it when I kissed you and starting jerking you off earlier.”

 

“Not at all, and I was. Immensely. You’re incredible, Levi.”

 

The way Smith says that, Levi thinks, sounds just as sincere as when he’d been telling him about his real feelings earlier —  _ if _ he is to be believed, anyway, because Levi maintains that he will decide that later — and of course, even though it’s stupid and he’s probably still an idiot, it makes him flush, hot enough so that he frowns, looks away, and sits up suddenly to face forward on the couch so he can start buttoning up his shirt. As he does so, he can see Smith studying him out of the corner of his eye, naturally, perhaps as if he’s trying to determine why Levi had turned away or whether or not he should say anything else like that again. Thankfully, even if Smith wants to he seems to decide that he shouldn’t, because he keeps quiet, although as a result, a sort of awkward silence commences while Levi fixes his shirt and tie and Smith pulls a tissue out to remove the condom.

 

“Levi...I’d love for you to stay.” He finally does say after another few moments, however, clearing his throat once Levi stands up to tuck his shirt back in. “But I have a meeting to go to. It actually starts right now.”

 

Upon hearing that, Levi loses any sense of discomfort he might have felt about Smith’s earlier comment, as instead of that, all he experiences at Smith’s admission is absolute surprise and incredulousness. 

 

“What? You have a  _ meeting?” _ He asks, turning to the side so that he can fully face Smith with his brows drawn down. 

 

Wow, he thinks. _Seriously?_ Smith is going to go to a meeting right _now_ , after railing him, and after Levi had just spent time lying on the couch thinking about how much Smith had looked the part barely even a minute ago? Apparently, Levi thinks, he is, although it’s hard for him to believe when he knows that _he’d_ rather die than have any sort of face to face conference with his co-workers right after he’d been getting laid. Somehow, though, Smith seems completely unperturbed by the entire situation, Levi sees, and just chuckles in the face of his taken aback expression, nodding as he follows him and gets to his feet so that he can start making himself look presentable.

 

“Yes.” He says too, tucking his own shirt in and moving to buckle up his pants while Levi does the same. “I’m going to be heinously late.” 

 

“Yeah...no shit...” Is Levi’s reply, although he mumbles it, and trails off when he suddenly finds himself distracted by the sight of Smith essentially transforming himself before him.  

 

_ Fuck _ , Levi thinks, one moment Smith looks like a mess and the next he’s back to being a neat, handsome and professional businessman again — or at least, that’s what it seems like after Levi, still feeling a bit dumbfounded, watches Smith smooth his clothing down, straighten his tie, and then unroll the sleeves of his shirt to fasten them at the cuffs. Next, he goes over to a small table by his desk and pours himself a glass of water from the jug resting on top of it — he offers some to Levi, but Levi declines with a quick shake of his head — and apparently finds it incredibly refreshing, so much so that he chugs it all down in four huge gulps before he runs a hand over the unruly mess that is his hair. At that point, he stops and frowns severely, Levi sees, like he’d just thought of something extremely concerning or fucking troublesome, and then moves to sit down at his desk, opening a drawer and pulling out a box that ends up containing a shiny, expensive looking hair comb.

 

Hastily, Smith uses it to expertly fix his hair within seconds, running the teeth through every inch of his blonde strands in an effort to tame them back into place. He does this for a moment or two, Levi notices, before he seems to be satisfied even though he can’t actually see his appearance, and then produces a container of pomade out of fucking nowhere so that he can apply it with his fingers to hold everything in place. Once he’s finished with that, he cleans his face with some kind of wet wipe that comes from a packet in his drawer — if it’s a baby wipe, Levi swears he is going to fucking lose it — and then stands back up again, grabbing his suit jacket from the back of his chair and swinging it on all in one quick motion. 

 

He buttons it, and lifts his head to look at Levi, and...well, just like that, he thinks with increduity, Smith is fucking perfect again, somehow no longer appearing like he’d just been balls deep in his ass less than 5 minutes ago, at least for the most part. His cheeks are still tinged a bit red, Levi sees then, although, to be honest, the color is a lot lighter now, and with how put together the fucker looks, sex would probably not be the first thing anyone would assume to be the cause of his flush if they were to notice. Still, despite all of that, Smith actually has the gall to raise his eyebrows at Levi as if to ask him how he looks, which is a question that Levi — who is honestly a bit mesmerized by what he’d witnessed, although probably because he’d just watched the most handsome fucking man he’s ever met work on his appearance — finds completely ridiculous, enough so that he feels flabbergasted, and ends up shaking his head in response out of disbelief. 

 

That, naturally, has Smith pulling a concerned expression, but only for a second before Levi swears and then holds his hands up, waving them around a bit in the hopes that it will dispel any confusion.

 

“No — I mean, yeah, fuck, it’s fine. Your shit looks fine.” He mumbles, next moving to lift his fingers up so he can run them over his own hair, glancing away and experiencing a brief hint of concern over  _ his  _ appearance too — not because he’s necessarily self-conscious, but because he will  _ definitely  _ have to do something about it before he gets back to his office.

 

Considering that Smith is leaving and he can’t fix himself up there, however, he supposes then that it would probably be a good idea to make a pitstop in one of the bathrooms downstairs before he actually exits the building. There, he can probably splash some water on his face and make sure that he’s decently presentable, at least enough so that hopefully no one — not even Petra, but  _ especially  _ her — will suspect anything when he finally returns. The sooner he probably accomplishes that the better, he ends up thinking then, because after glancing at his watch, he realizes that he’s been gone for almost two hours and who the fuck  _ knows _ what kind of bullshit has happened in his absence. 

 

“Uh…” He utters then, after Smith fails to move once he answers his question. Instead, he remains still, standing behind his desk and watching Levi a bit curiously — something that naturally has the effect of making him feel fucking awkward. “I need to go too.”

 

Thankfully, once he utters that, Smith gives him a small smile and springs back into action, moving to step around his desk while holding his arm out so that he can lead Levi towards the door. 

 

“Of course. I understand; I’m sure you have a busy afternoon ahead too.” He says, while Levi just nods and follows him so that he can be let out, although, of course, it suddenly occurs to him that he can’t be stupid enough to think that he’ll  _ miraculously _ get out of there without Smith opening his mouth to say some shit about—

 

“I still want to talk to you more, Levi, about what I told you. Will you call me?”

 

Biting his lip, Levi nearly sighs, and looks Smith up and down from where they’d both stopped in front of the door. Obviously, he thinks, Smith doesn’t mean that he wants to discuss the sex that they’d just had, but the  _ other  _ shit, his supposed confessions, which is all fine and not unexpected, although it’s also very important to Levi that Smith understands that...well, that the sex doesn’t necessarily mean he’s now automatically back on Levi’s good side either.

 

“We’ll see.” He says, because he still hasn’t decided  _ what  _ he really thinks, and he refuses to let his guard down again until he does. “But just so you know, what we did on your couch has nothing to do with how I really feel or anything like that, got it?”

 

For a long moment, Smith studies him. His face is pensive and his brows are drawn down, and Levi wonders if he’s going to have to fucking explain to him what he’s trying to say — that what they’d just done is completely no strings attached — and that the sex and Levi’s questionable lust has nothing to do with whether he’ll choose to believe him or not. Thankfully, however, Smith seems to understand after one more second or two, because he suddenly chuckles and then offers Levi another smile, although this one, he notices, seems less warm than those that he’d been giving him before, impersonal, somehow, as if they’re now merely discussing a stupid business matter rather than anything else.  

 

“Of course, Levi.” He murmurs in an impassive tone too, turning away from him so that he can reach out to place a hand on the doorknob.

 

He starts to twist it, Levi sees, because he’s going to open it for him, but before he can, Levi ends up suddenly throwing his own palm out to catch Smith’s bicep, as he finds it curious that the change in him just now had been so obvious and noticeable. Of course, it’s not like he cares, though, because he’s not after anything in the least and hasn’t made any promises to Smith whatsoever about contacting him in the future, but he files it away to think about later, and finds that he can’t leave the man resembling something like a kicked puppy even though he’s certainly not on Levi’s favorite persons list. Besides, he thinks, he’s in a relatively relaxed mood now and regardless of anything else Smith  _ had  _ made him feel amazing, and so after studying him for a second he just fucking sighs loudly and stands up a bit onto his toes, reaching out for Smith’s hair so that he can brush a few strands back that he’d missed earlier with his comb. 

 

They’re still out of place, Levi sees, and because he gets the sense that Smith would be bothered if he knew it, he uses his fingers to push them off his forehead and then smooth the ends down with his thumb, eyeing him — Smith’s own expression has warmed a bit again at what he’d done — one last time before he tugs him down for another kiss. Intending it to be the final one, though, he presses their lips together firmly, but quickly, moving to pull away just as he feels Smith’s hand go to his waist to steady himself for it.

 

“You stole one of my clients that day in the lobby last year, by the way.” Levi says then, as he had not forgotten, and will be  _ damned _ if he leaves without mentioning it even if he frames it as playful banter. “You  _ better  _ not fucking do that shit again. Understand, Smith?”

 

He doesn’t wait for an answer before he lets go of Smith and opens the door himself, striding through it and back down the hallway he’d come from towards the elevator. Before he reaches it, before he’s out of sight of Smith’s face, however, he turns to look over his shoulder and finds him still standing in the doorway, staring at him with an awed sort of expression, like he’d just been struck by lightning or something. When he sees Levi turn and meet his eyes his mouth curves up into a sort of lopsided grin though, and he lifts a hand to wave at him in goodbye. Staring at him for another second, Levi eventually raises his own to return the gesture, and this time, as he gets closer to the elevator, there can be no doubt in either of their minds that his wave is meant for Smith, and Smith only. 

 

After that, Smith retreats back into his office to probably get what he needs for his meeting or whatever, and in that moment, Levi can only hope that he refrains from looking into a mirror so that he doesn’t notice the purple hickey that’s started to bloom underneath his neck. 

 

Levi had just spotted it as he’d been leaving, and while thinking about it in the elevator, he has to try hard to hold back a small, private smile at the thought of Smith walking into a full conference room with something like that on his skin, but then immediately checks his own for marks as soon as he gets into the bathroom. Thankfully, there are none this time, but he makes sure to clean himself the rest of the way up anyway, heading into a stall first before he splashes his face with water at the sink and adjusts his hair and clothing in the mirror. After that, after one last check to his reflection, he decides he looks normal enough to get back to fucking work without arousing any suspicions, and walks outside bereft of that worry, finding himself spending the trip back enjoying the sun and the suprisingly nice breeze along the sidewalk. 

 

Strangely, he even takes in the scenery on the way instead of anxiously rushing back and stressing himself out with irritation about pedestrians and traffic, and even decides to allow himself a treat on a whim, stopping inside one of his favorite cafes to get some take-out for lunch  _ and  _ a delicious, iced doughnut _.  _ After that, he then returns to his office, and somehow manages to avoid Petra — she actually doesn’t ask when she sees him later either, although she does look at him very, very suspiciously for the rest of the day — before he eats his meal and then makes himself a cup of tea. He sips on that while going through his email, and once he’s done, he just slumps back into his chair, feeling full and sated and...well, suddenly hit by the full extent of what he’d actually just fucking done. 

 

He’d slept with Erwin Smith, he thinks then, _again_ , in the man’s office, _instead_ of leaving and getting the hell out of there after telling him off like he’d originally planned. Shit, he’d really, really done a 180 by turning around and allowing Smith to fuck him, goddamit, particularly because — after hating himself for the past two weeks for continuing to lust after the bastard despite his reservations — _he_ had been the one to initiate it, yet again. _Fuck,_ he wonders then, is he an idiot? Had he just made another huge, stupid fucking mistake? At that question, Levi goes still for a moment and braces himself, fully expecting all the anger, self-hatred, and guilt he’d been experiencing over the past two weeks to return to him in full force. Surprisingly, however, it doesn’t actually come, and after sitting there for a bit staring out the window at Smith’s tower, he finds that he just doesn’t fucking feel that way, not really. 

 

No, it’s almost like he’s subconsciously decided that there’s just no fucking point in it anymore, he thinks then, because after all, he’d known who he’d been having sex with this time, right? He had, and he’d been fully aware of the potential bullshit that might come with taking his clothes off for Smith too, and because of that, at least right then, he can’t really find it in him to be mad or disappointed or frustrated with himself in the least. That’s fucking good, to be honest, because all of those constant, negative emotions had been making him goddamn miserable and kind of a bit depressed, and in that way, even though he would never have predicted any of this, his quickie with Smith seems to have been just as stress relieving as he had originally hoped his dalliance with the man at the hotel would be to begin with. 

 

Of course, the sex that day had been amazing in general and its hard to get up in arms about it when he feels so satisfied, and because of that, he finds himself feeling more relaxed at work than he had in ages, so much so that things don’t bother him like they usually do, and he doesn’t even get irritated and huffy when his mother comes in with tons of her backed up paperwork for him to complete like he would have normally. Instead he just takes it and does what he’s supposed to quietly, and finishes out the day with nothing seemingly weighing on his mind to make him anxious. He sleeps well — better than he has since all this shit with Smith had started, he realizes — and although he’s definitely sore in the morning again, he wakes up feeling refreshed and ready for work, and doesn’t have to rush to the office because he’d gotten up on time instead of lolling about in bed and dreading the day, and putting off his shower until the very last possible second.

 

Somehow, he makes it through the next 8 hours without his decent mood really changing too which is probably something like a world’s record, and while he’s never been the kind of cheerful, bubbly person that Petra is when she’s happy even during the best of circumstances, he can tell that the shift in him is noticeable to her, because she continues eyeing him curiously when she thinks he isn’t looking, watching him and lingering and clearly trying to figure out how to ask him if something is going on. Levi can tell because she’s really obvious about it — probably on purpose, knowing her — but he doesn’t necessarily feel like offering up the information, perhaps because he is sure that she’ll give him tons of shit, and that it will just open up an entire can of worms that he doesn’t want to discuss out loud. 

 

Unfortunately, though, he has a feeling that he won’t be able to hide it from her forever, and of course, because it’s just his luck, he’s proven right the very next day, 48 hours _after_ he’d had sex with Smith in his office and once he walks into his own that morning, unwittingly stumbling in on a very familiar, very ridiculous and deja vu inducing scene: Petra, standing by a bouquet of flowers with a card in her hand, waiting on him to arrive so that he can see the gift that has _without a doubt_ been sent to him by Smith. This time, Levi sees, he has gotten him roses — at least _five dozen_ sinfully red, red roses — and as he stops in the doorway and meets Petra’s eyes, he knows that she has probably pieced together _everything_ that he’d held back from telling her so far. 

 

“Dear Levi.” She starts before directly teasing him, however, clearing her throat in a loud, dramatic way and then raising her voice, apparently having decided to fuck with him at 8:00 in the morning by reading from the card like she’s putting on a goddamn presentation. “Please forgive me if this is still unwelcome. I just wanted to let you know that I enjoyed our ‘meeting’ the other day, and I’ve been thinking about ‘having’ you again here ever since. Your presence brightened up my office, and I very much hope that I will hear from you soon. Yours truly, Erwin Smith.”

 

While Petra reads Smith’s words off the card — in a deep voice that is supposed to be reminiscent of his own, Levi supposes — Levi stands there and listens, feeling his skin grow warmer and warmer with every syllable that comes out of her fucking mouth. Of course, it doesn’t help that said syllables combine to say the things that they actually say, and so by the time she’s finished, Levi’s cheeks and ears are burning so hotly that he could probably fry an entire egg on his face if he’d wanted to. 

 

_ “Shit.”  _ He swears under his breath then, striding in while ignoring Petra’s smug expression to snatch the card out of her hand, muttering and scowling and huffing in embarrassment the entire time while passing her towards his desk. “Fuck. Give me that!”

 

Stepping around to the side of it, he sets his messenger bag down with his back to her and finds himself unable to stop from pausing to check the card himself, relaxing his expression and letting his eyes scan over what Smith had fucking written to him — words that are, of course,  _ exactly  _ the same as what Petra had read out loud. At that point, his flush just feels like it's becoming worse, although this time it might have something to do with the way his heartbeat picks up in his chest rather than Petra’s playful attempt at humiliation. Of course, she’s only messing with him, but Smith isn’t, and although Levi isn’t enraged or disgusted at all unlike the last time this had happened, he does find himself shaking his head and cursing under his breath at how over the top he is, obviously for sending him  _ 60 fucking roses _ and making it incredibly clear to Petra that  _ something _ had happened between them that was decidedly less than innocent. 

 

“You’re acting a lot calmer about this than you did the last time, Levi.” Petra remarks then, appearing to be actually vibrating with curiosity when Levi looks over his shoulder at her with a grimace. Apparently, his lack of response is just too much for her to contain herself any longer, because she seems to explode in the next second, making a beeline for his desk so that she can throw her arms into the air and fix him with an imploring look. “So what the hell?! Is _this_ where you went the other day, to see _Erwin_ _Smith?!”_

 

Levi bites his lip. This situation, he thinks, after the conversations he’d had with Petra before about telling her all he’d wanted to do is forget the man, is exactly what he had wanted to avoid. However, as he’d already admitted to himself, he probably can’t hide it from her forever, and it’s not like he’s going to sit there and actually lie. At this point, he knows, he has no choice but to fucking sit down and tell her the truth, he supposes, although mainly because...well, it’s not like Smith had sent him something small, generic, and polite, after all. No, he had sent him another expensive bouquet — this time of  _ just  _ red roses, which  _ everyone knows  _ only means  _ one thing  _ — and an accompanying card filled with honey sweet flattery, actual fucking quotation marks around the word  _ meeting, _ and a sexual innuendo that Smith apparently found funny enough to write out himself.

 

_ Jesus fucking Christ,  _ Levi thinks then. He might as well have just said ‘I enjoyed ruining your ass again the other day,’ by doing that shit, because Petra isn’t stupid, and anyone with half a brain could look at the entire package and suspect what had gone on. God,  _ shit, _ what if his mother or Kenny had seen them get delivered, or come across them before he or Petra had? Then he’d really be fucked, because having to face Petra sounds like a pleasant experience in comparison to anyone in his fucking family. Still, he’d felt a flash of alarm at the thought of one of them walking in to see this shit so strongly that it was like a cold knife going through him, and so he finally just huffs a loud sigh, plopping down in his chair behind his desk before nodding his head in the direction of his office door.

 

“Just close the damn door.” He grumbles, while Petra only narrows her eyes. “And keep your voice down, for fuck’s sake.”

 

“If I close it,” She replies, watching him carefully. “Are you going to tell me what happened?”

 

“Yeah, shit. Fucking fine. Just close it, and lock it the fuck up. And pull the curtains over the glass too.”

 

Petra complies, barring anyone from entering his office or seeing inside through the glass door and windows from the hallway. Afterward, she comes back and takes her usual seat in front of Levi’s desk, leaning over to place her arms on the edge of it while looking at him expectantly with her eyebrows raised. She seems amused but also like she’s ready to blurt out ‘I told you so’ at a moment’s notice, and for that reason, Levi stares at her for several long, quiet seconds, trying to think of how to tell her everything in a way that will avoid that. Of course, there isn’t one, and...well, as much as he feels like squirming under her intense gaze, he might as well just get it over with now.

 

“You were fucking right, okay?!” He starts then, leaning forward to place his head in his hands before running his fingers through his hair in exasperation. He stays like that for a moment, and then looks up and back at her, moving to sink down into his chair almost as far as he can go without sliding onto the actual floor. “About the way he mentioned the lobby in his email. Remember?”

 

“Yeah. Of course I remember. It was weird.”

 

“Yeah, I know. It  _ was  _ weird, and I couldn’t stop thinking about that shit no matter how much I tried. It was bothering me, so I...I asked him about it.”

 

Immediately, Petra’s eyes go round, and she blurts out so many questions at once that Levi honestly almost cringes. “You asked him?! When? How? What did you say? Levi, oh my _god!”_

 

“Monday night! I just emailed him and asked him what he meant. He said he came to our office last year to meet with my mom, and when he left, he saw me in the lobby and thought I fucking waved at him. That was why he’d thought I already knew who he was.”

 

“Oh my god,  _ did  _ you—

 

_ “No, _ I  _ didn’t  _ fucking wave at him, calm down! I went and got the security camera tape from Kenny for that day, to see whether he was lying or not. He wasn’t, not about that, but I didn’t wave at him. I waved at you, walking in behind him, and he just thought it was directed at him. Isn’t that the dumbest shit you’ve ever heard?”

 

Levi isn’t sure that’s exactly what Petra is thinking, but she does seem to find it funny. She starts laughing loudly, in fact, after a moment where she appears shocked, and he has to imagine she’s picturing suave, confident Erwin Smith standing there like a dope while the person who he thought was waving at him had no idea he existed. That’s certainly what  _ he  _ had thought about, he recalls, but of course, that isn’t even half the fucking story. 

 

“But I got really pissed off again while watching it, because do you remember that big client I was trying to land last year, the one who wanted us to outfit his whole building? His name was Dimo Reeves, and I met with him a couple of times with Eld and Gunther?”

 

“Um...yeah. I think so.”

 

“Well, I realized when I saw the damned video that I’d just gotten out of a meeting with him when Smith saw me in the lobby.”

 

“Okay...so?”

 

“So, don’t you  _ also _ remember who stole that whole fucking deal right out from under us?”

 

Levi looks at her imploringly, and he swears he can see the gears turning in her head in the seconds that follow. She zones out to think but then refocuses her eyes on him almost just as quickly, widening them again and letting her mouth drop open in more surprise. “Yes! It was  _ him _ , wasn’t it?! I mean...Erwin Smith?”

 

“Yeah. Yeah it was, and it’s still fucking bullshit, and I was so mad about it that I thought I was gonna explode. I felt like a dumbass all over again, like after that shit with him at the hotel.” 

 

“But that was just a misunderstanding, right? He wasn’t trying to trick you?”

 

“I can’t know that, Petra. Even if I  _ had  _ been waving at him, it wouldn’t necessarily mean I knew who he fucking was.” Levi says, speaking as if he’s irritated at Petra’s defense of Smith, although actually, he doesn’t know who he’s kidding. The anger about what had happened to him that night is just no longer really there. “But I was just so pissed, and then the fucker decided to send me an email while I was thinking about it,  _ again _ , without my permission! So I...uh, I took the video to his office because I wanted to show him how stupid he looked.”

 

Levi finishes that part of his explanation by uttering the last sentence quickly and lamely, and for the exact same reason that Petra snorts in response and gives him an incredulous look: it all sounds ridiculous now that he thinks back on it — or at least like a very foolish, pointless idea — although to be fair to himself, the rage he’d been in had kind of clouded his judgment.

 

“And then what happened?” She says, pressing onward because Levi had fallen silent. “Did you take your clothes off as soon as you got there, or was it a while later?”

 

“Petra!” 

 

“What, Levi?! That’s what happened, isn’t it? You had  _ sex _ with him? During your ‘meeting?’”

 

She uses her fingers to air quote the word meeting, just as Smith had done cheekily in his stupid goddamn card. At the same time, she fixes him with a tiny smile that fails to conceal how fucking delightful she actually finds all of this, because yeah,  _ fine, _ he’d fucked the guy he’d been bitching about vehemently for two weeks and sworn that he’d  _ never _ wanted to see or talk to her about again. 

 

“Yeah. Yeah, we fucking had sex, okay?! On his couch.  _ Doggy style.  _ I was on my hands and knees and he put my dick in his mouth before that, happy? Anything else you need to know? You want me to tell you how hard I fucking came, because I’m pretty sure I almost blacked out. His cock belongs on a  _ horse,  _ Petra _.” _

“I—

 

Petra cuts herself with her own giggles — laughter that had started at Levi’s use of the term ‘doggy style’ and continued through the rest of his words — and then devolves into an amused, shaking lump on his desk, having leaned over to put her head in her arms at his over the top commentary, commentary which he supposes he had uttered that way on purpose just to see her react like this. Despite himself, he thinks then, he feels a bit lighthearted discussing this with her now that it doesn’t completely make him want to die, and strangely, again finds it much easier to relate details of his sex life to her rather than the more emotional things.

 

“I  _ did _ fucking yell at him before, though.” He continues then, just to make it clear that he wasn’t  _ that _ fucking weak and thirsty for Smith’s dick. “I didn’t just walk in and bend over! I showed him the footage and told him the fuck off, and then I almost left, but he started saying all this shit, and—

 

“What did he say?” Petra interrupts then, straightening up in her seat and lifting her head so fast to look at him that it makes Levi blink. 

 

Suddenly, her laughter is gone and she appears to be listening closely, probably because she suspects that whatever Smith had said to keep him from storming out...well, it must have been good. Levi doesn’t know about that, but he continues anyway, biting his lip and looking away as he remembers everything that Smith had told him. Thinking about it in detail makes his fucking face start to flush again, naturally, because as he’d just thought, relating this to her out loud is somehow more embarrassing and hard for him to talk about than the sordid details of their sexual encounters.

 

“He just said shit like...that he’d admired me and had wanted to talk to me all year, but he didn’t know if I’d like him because our companies are rivals, or whatever.” He mumbles though, fidgeting in his seat and feeling Petra’s stare on him. “He saw me at the fundraiser and decided to give it a shot, but he told me that he hadn’t been planning to try to fucking sleep with me when he came over. It happened, but...uh—

 

“Wait. Go back. He admired you? What does that mean, exactly?” Petra interrupts and asks, leaning forward even more with interest while Levi continues to look at  _ anything  _ but her.

 

In fact, his eyes have locked onto the electric kettle he keeps on a table in the corner of his office, and he finds himself getting up, walking over to turn it on — there’s still water in it from the last time he’d made tea — while again worrying at his lip.

 

“Uh...I mean...I don’t really fucking know, Petra.” He mutters, although he  _ does  _ remember the compliments that Smith had bestowed on him again in his office — compliments that he’d given him that first night too, but that Levi had previously dismissed as complete and utter lies. “He fucking said...he  _ said _ I looked good and shit like that, but—

 

Petra cuts him off with a loud gasp, which somehow manages to sound fucking overjoyed even though its just a sharp intake of air. Despite the fact that he isn’t looking at her, Levi can pretty much picture the rest of her reaction too, knowing that she’d probably just brought one hand up to momentarily cover her mouth, and is wearing a ridiculously wide and happy-for-him smile. “Oh my god! He likes you, like _ romantically?! _ That’s cute, I—

 

“What? No, that’s  _ not _ what he said! I don’t know if it’s like that, because he didn’t get that specific. He just said it was the truth that he wasn’t trying to manipulate me and shit, because he really just wanted to talk.”

 

“Well...do you believe him?”

 

_ There it is, _ Levi thinks — the question that he’d just been  _ waiting _ on her to ask, and that he’d been vehemently avoiding posing to himself over the past two days. Still, that doesn’t mean he hasn’t thought about it, because he has,  _ a lot _ . He’d been thinking about it from the moment he’d left Smith’s office, in fact, and although he’d been putting off admitting anything to himself, he knows deep down that the short answer is...well, that he’s just not sure. The long answer, of course, is much more complicated than that, because he now feels that there are several different layers to this entire goddamn situation, and it’s hard to reconcile everything much less come to a conclusion that he thinks is right. To be honest, he wishes that he  _ could  _ just say yes so that he could put all of this behind him and fucking forget about everything, but he also knows that he can’t, because doing such a thing would obviously be incredibly goddamn stupid.

 

He’s learned his lesson about that, after all, about not being careful enough around men like Smith, and is assuredly not going to let himself fall for anything like he might have done ever,  _ ever  _ again. Still, though, despite his leftover wariness and his confliction, Levi  _ does  _ feel certain of at least one thing: at the bare minimum, he knows, he just no longer considers Smith to be a threat to him personally. No, the fucker doesn’t  _ control  _ him, he’s realized, and he can’t  _ make  _ Levi do something that he doesn’t want to do. He can’t force him to sell Ackerman Securities, or to convince his mother that  _ she  _ should sell it or to get Smith an ‘in’ with her or whatever the fuck it is that he might’ve wanted, because as long as Levi doesn’t turn into a complete idiot, it doesn’t matter what shitty games he tries to play when he’s now aware that there might be games to begin with.

 

In other words, Levi is confident that he won’t fall into any traps when he already knows to look out for them, which is basically what he’d told himself in Smith’s office when he’d decided to go ahead and give in to his lust. That had been relieving, he recalls,  _ incredibly  _ so, as it had also allowed him to admit his attraction to the bastard without completely hating himself for it, and to get past all of the anger and frustration and negative feelings he’d been experiencing every single day since that night at the hotel. That’s the reason he’s been in such a good mood over the past 48 hours other than the sex itself, he knows, because of all the fucking weight that is now off his shoulders, but unfortunately, he supposes that none of that really answers Petra’s question, nor does it help him to sit there and work through everything else, either. 

 

Does he believe Smith, he asks himself again? Does he think that Smith had been  _ sincere  _ when he’d told Levi that he has a physical interest in him, or whatever? While pondering that and  _ only  _ that, Levi supposes he can admit that there might be some truth to Smith’s words. After all, he’d seen Smith’s reaction to his questions about whether he’d wanted to fuck him or not and noticed his flushed face and flustered words, and is pretty sure that — even if the rest of his speech had been a lie — shit like that would be pretty hard to successfully fake. The way he’d behaved while they’d actually been fucking had to be genuine too, Levi thinks, because all of Smith’s actions had come while in the moment, and it’s very clear to him when he recalls his eagerness and excitement that Smith had  _ definitely  _ been enjoying it. 

 

Okay, though. So what? That just means that Smith likes having sex with him, but it doesn’t automatically mean that he’d approached Levi at the bar without any ill intentions. Sure, he’d seemed incredibly wholehearted — and vulnerable — in his office when he’d been ‘explaining’ everything, Levi recalls, to the point where it had made him stop and listen when he’d been about to walk out, but...it’s just, after everything that has happened, Levi can’t find it in himself to say that he can truly, completely trust him. He’d felt like shit for a while after the first incident that had happened between them, after all, and the last thing he ever wants to do is let his guard down too much and experience something like that again. 

 

Furthermore, Smith  _ is _ a business rival regardless of everything else, Levi knows, and no matter how much he thinks about it, no matter how much he knows Petra wants him to say ‘yes,’ he fucking can’t, as he can’t automatically forget all of his concerns just because Smith is hot and fucks him so good that he is left stress free and pleasant to be around for days.

 

“I...I dunno, Petra.” Levi finally says then and with that thought, keeping it in mind after he sighs, turns back around to face her, and crosses his arms. “It’s fucking complicated. I mean...he clearly likes having sex with me, so I guess he’s not faking  _ everything _ , but—

 

“Clearly.” Petra interrupts, repeating what Levi had said in a dry tone while gesturing towards the roses. 

 

In response, Levi just clicks his tongue and then frowns, staring at her silently after that because her eyes are sparkling and...well, even though he hadn’t been allowed to finish, he can see what she  _ really  _ wants to say building up inside her with each passing second, growing more and more obvious as her smile gets wider until suddenly, she slaps a hand down on Levi’s desk and finally starts to celebrate her victory.

 

“I knew it!” She practically shouts then, while Levi fights back yet another sigh. “I fucking knew it! I  _ knew _ it was just a misunderstanding, and that he really sent that first bouquet to apologize to you! He seemed sincere in his card and email, and— 

 

“Petra—

 

—that stuff with the lobby just didn’t add up. See, he  _ is _ a nice guy!”

 

“Well...I didn’t fucking say  _ that _ . I didn’t say any of that, Petra!” 

 

“Wait, what do you mean? I thought you said he wasn’t faking?”

 

“I said he wasn’t faking about  _ everything _ , which means he could still be faking about  _ something _ .” Levi says, pausing there so that he can try to find better words — words that won’t be confusing, and that hopefully won’t sound mean enough to put Petra down.

 

He doesn’t want to damper her excitement about what had happened, of course, or to make her think that he just can’t admit he might have been a little wrong about something or anything like that, but he hadn’t even been able to finish explaining himself before she’d taken what he’d said and  _ ran _ with it instead of listening to the rest. Needless to say, he doesn’t want that  _ at all _ because admitting that Smith likes to fuck him isn’t even the half of it, and...well, Petra has a tendency to get way, way ahead of herself, and he can tell that she’s already starting to do that shit now.  

 

“You  _ were  _ partially right though, okay?” He continues then, however, making sure that his tone remains soft even as he grouses — completely for Petra’s sake, and not his. “I should’ve listened to you more back then, but I just don’t know if I can trust him all the way. It wasn’t fun, thinking that he’d fucked with me like that, you know?”

 

“I know, Levi. I just want it to turn out that he actually didn’t.” Petra replies, thankfully only changing her smile to one of encouragement rather than disappointment.

 

“Yeah...well, either way, it doesn’t mean anything is going to change. It doesn’t matter.”

 

“What? Why?”

 

“It just doesn’t, okay?”

 

“Sooo....you aren’t going to see him again, then?”

 

“Why the hell would I?”

 

“Well, he seems to think that you are.”

 

“That’s because he wants to talk about all this shit, because I didn’t fucking tell him whether I believed him or not before I left! I blew it off, and I don’t want to discuss any of it now, either.” 

 

“Why?”

 

“I just  _ don’t _ , okay? Because like I said, it doesn’t fucking matter one way or the other.” Levi mutters, shrugging and turning back around when he realizes the kettle is boiling. 

 

He gets out a teacup for himself and one for Petra, and prepares the leaves, chewing on his words because he knows her, and he knows what she’s probably thinking: she wants him to forgive Smith, he suspects, to realize he’s not a bad guy so that he can get to know him better because she sees this as an opportunity for him to — god fucking forbid — get a date or even a new friend, but unfortunately for her, there is absolutely no way in hell that shit is going to happen. In fact, the thought makes him want to vomit, because even if he did believe everything Smith had said he  _ still  _ wouldn’t do anything like that, not when he barely knows anything about him, does not think that he particularly enjoys being around him when they aren’t fucking, and...well,  _ is  _ his goddamn business rival, as he had just thought.

 

How to make that clear to Petra, though? Again, he doesn’t want to hurt her feelings by getting too stern — particularly because he knows this is all coming from a desire for him to be happy — but he’s already made up his mind about all of this, and he’s pretty sure that Erwin Smith is not the type of guy he should be getting close to.

 

“Petra…listen: he’s a good fucking lay, okay?” He starts then, pausing to stare at the cups of tea he’d poured before he continues, keeping his voice low. “But I don’t want to be friends with him. He’s a shady ass businessman, and he steals all our fucking clients and makes us lose money!”

 

“Oh. Well...you’ve never really been that offended about his business practices before, but okay. I wasn’t going to say that you had to become his best friend, or anything, but I think he likes you, Levi. I don’t think talking to him again would hurt if it wasn’t about business, and maybe it’ll help you decide whether he’s trustworthy or not.” Petra responds, apparently having not quite given up on it yet after all.  

 

She smiles at him again as he begins to return with their tea but then stops, staring at her with a pinched expression in regards to her comment about him being offended. As usual, she’s fucking right and sees through his bullshit and knows it — before all of this, he hadn’t taken much to do with their company personally because he’d found it hard to care — but he’s not going to acknowledge the call out, not this time. He’s tired of talking about this and even  _ if  _ he might be making excuses he doesn’t give a shit because it’s just  _ not going to happen _ , and he refuses to say or even think what he actually means when he says it doesn’t matter: that he isn’t comfortable making himself that vulnerable in front of Smith for his own sake even if he  _ is  _ telling the truth, and still isn’t sure that admitting it to him would be a good idea. Because of that, he just ends up rolling his eyes and sighing loudly, shaking his head as he sits back down and hands Petra her tea. 

 

“Maybe fucking not Petra, but just because he might like me doesn’t mean I like him, okay? I didn’t say that I did, even if we had sex again. Just because he might be telling the complete truth about what he wanted from me, it still doesn’t automatically mean he’s not a piece of shit slimeball in every other way possible, okay?”

 

“Alright then. Fine, Levi. He’s a slimeball. So I guess you’ll be throwing these flowers away then, like the other ones?” Petra replies to that, smirking and raising a brow and causing Levi to look up sharply from where he’d been staring down at his tea to glare at her.

 

That just makes her laugh, but thankfully, after that, she checks the time on her phone and decides to give him a break and actually get to work, thanking him for the tea and promising to return the cup later after she takes it with her. She hums as she walks out and Levi watches her all the way, remaining still in his seat while she exits his office, closes the door back behind her, and disappears down the hallway. He can hear her heels thumping on the carpet as she returns to her own workspace until they stop and she presumably reaches her desk, but he continues to stare out the glass door with a deep frown, finding that the way their conversation left off had made him feel a bit uneasy and troubled about his entire last visit with Smith all of a sudden. 

It’s ironic, he thinks, considering that it started with him thinking about how relieved he was to not have to feel guilty about  _ only  _ having sex with the guy, but now...well, he’s kind of fucking conflicted.

 

Of course, he can still believe that Smith genuinely had wanted to fuck him or whatever and hadn’t been lying about that, but talking about how he’s a business rival — even though  _ yes _ , Levi had not always given a shit — has reminded him of just  _ how much _ Smith isn’t at all harmless or innocent in everything else he’s done. After all, his mother hates him for her own reasons, right, which all have to do with his supposedly shady business practices and how he’s known for being cutthroat and ruthless? Yes, he knows, she does, and considering that Levi had seen a glimpse of the latter when he’d finally aggravated Smith enough to talk back to him in his office, he doesn’t doubt that side of him really does exist, and he can’t help but remember that shitty article that had been written about them in the newspaper. Had Smith really been the one behind it like his mother claims? 

 

If he had...well, that’d be fucked up, and he’s pretty sure he shouldn’t be showing his ass to any guy who wants to fuck his family’s company over like that even if he  _ does _ hate his job. Why had he given it up so easy, anyway? What the hell is  _ wrong  _ with him? He’d essentially fucking shrugged off all the emotional torment Smith had put him through and then bent over upon hearing the  _ first hint _ of a reasonable excuse that he might be able to use to justify his lust, and when he thinks about it like that, its kind of fucking pathetic. God, if his mother were to find out what he’d been doing — not really the sex, but talking to Smith in general — she’d probably take it like a slap in the face, but whatever. Even if he’s now slightly frustrated with himself again it doesn’t matter like he’d told Petra, as all of this just further validates his thoughts that it would be pointless to have any further conversations about whether he believes Smith or not when he’s probably still a rat.

 

He shouldn’t be doing it, because he shouldn’t be seeing him, because he can’t  _ trust him _ , although at the very least, he does feel pretty damn good about his instincts telling him not to completely roll over and start believing Smith about everything without giving it a lot of thought. Strangely enough, his perception of the matter is not helped when he gets another unexpected surprise a few hours later, either: a visitor who shows up out of nowhere, and whose appearance comes with so much gravity that Petra practically busts into his office around 11:00 without warning, sounding so out of breath that it was like she’d taken the stairs instead of the elevator and ran down the entire length of the fucking hallway.

 

“What the fuck?!” Levi exclaims when she enters, startled and immediately experiencing a spike in  _ stress  _ — mostly because he assumes something bad has happened and  _ he’ll  _ have to be the one to deal with it.

 

“Um...Levi.” Petra starts in response, staring at him with wide eyes and an unsure expression on her face. “There’s someone here to see you.”

 

At that, Levi’s alarm turns to puzzlement. A visitor? That’s not necessarily unusual, but why the hell is Petra in his office telling him that when she knows he doesn’t do walk-ins? “So...? Tell them to call back and make a fucking appointment. I don’t have time for this shit today.”

 

Part of that  _ is  _ true — the monthly sales report is due soon, and he has to compile everyone’s fucking numbers and write it all up — but because of the way their earlier conversation had left him feeling, his relaxed disposition from getting laid before is gone and he’s not in the mood to be generous. Whoever this person is, he thinks then, they’re just going to have to come back when his schedule allows it, because he hates when people show up and just  _ assume  _ he’s not busy, and that he can drop whatever he’s fucking doing at a moment’s notice to go down and talk to them. For fuck’s sake, he’s not just waiting around every single day with his thumb up his ass in anticipation for people to come to his office, and it’s bullshit, and annoying, and he’s  _ really  _ goddamn tired of working for his mother’s—

 

“Actually, you might not want me to do that.” Petra says then, interrupting his internal ranting and stepping completely through the door to close it behind her.

 

Her words make Levi scowl deeply, but it’s not even a split second before his irritation turns to panic instead, mostly because he suddenly wonders if she’s about to tell him that  _ Smith  _ has shown up to see him rather than anyone else. That would be an absolute fucking nightmare, he knows, but thankfully, his fear doesn’t last very long before he realizes just as quickly that...well, if it  _ was  _ Smith, he’s pretty sure Petra would be freaking out a lot more than this, and she wouldn’t have been able to wait even this long to start fucking with him about it. That thought just raises even more questions in his mind, however, because if  _ Smith  _ isn’t the person that he apparently might not want her to send away, then who the hell is it?

 

“...why?” Levi asks her then, unsure if he wants to know the answer. When it comes to his work and surprises, all he really ever feels is dread. “Who is it?” 

 

“It’s Dimo Reeves.” 

 

For a moment, there is silence, because Levi is left so shocked and confused that he doesn’t even know what to say. Had he...had he  _ heard  _ Petra right? _ Dimo Reeves? _ The man they’d briefly discussed earlier, who’s money had been snatched right out from under his nose last year because of Smith?  _ That _ Dimo Reeves? It has to be, but why the fuck is he there, at Ackerman Securities? Why does he want to talk to Levi out of the blue like this? Somehow, because Levi does not think his timing could be a coincidence a _ t all _ , he has a feeling that it has  _ something  _ to do with Smith.

 

“Dimo Reeves.” Levi states simply, though, raising his brows in Petra’s direction as if to ask whether or not she’s serious. 

 

She is, of course, and her response is to nod and give him a tiny smile — something that causes Levi to slump backward in disbelief from where he’d been leaning over his desk. His eyes unfocus for a moment while he soaks it in, while he tries to tell himself that Petra wouldn’t lie to him and Reeves really, really is down there, and while he...well, while he considers what the fuck he should do. Should he go downstairs and meet with the guy, or not? That answer, of course, probably will depend on the reason for his visit in the first place, and he hopes that Petra had thought to find that out before she’d come barreling in there to find him. 

 

“Did he say what the hell he’s here for?”  

 

“Yes. He says that Erwin Smith cancelled his contract out of the blue, and told him to come see you. He apologized for the unannounced visit, but he no longer has any security and is in a bad spot.”

 

Again, even though Levi had  _ just  _ assumed Smith to be involved in all this, he is stunned, because what the fuck? He’d  _ cancelled his contract with Reeves?  _ Why would he do that, when there is no doubt in his mind that it was a good fucking contract? It had to have been, Levi knows, because Reeves owns a huge chain of popular grocery stores and had built his new headquarters in their city last year, which was why he’d been soliciting security companies — including the Ackerman’s, obviously — when Levi had first been meeting with him. He’d gotten  _ so close  _ to sealing that fucking deal back then, he remembers, and had been so,  _ so  _ confident the day he’d walked out, the day Smith had waved at him, that Reeves was going to return to him with a signed contract and he’d actually be victorious about something at his job.

 

Of course, though, Reeves hadn’t, and Levi wasn’t, but... _ fuck, _ why had Smith done this? Was it supposed to be some sort of...of  _ apology  _ for that, after Levi had told him he’d stolen his fucking client when he’d left his office the other day? Is this his way of continuing to try and prove he’s not an asshole, by returning the guy to him in addition to the flowers? It’s either that, Levi thinks, or it’s some kind of trick. He can’t know for sure, but it’s clear that Smith had watched the tape Levi had left in his laptop — he hadn’t thought to grab it at  _ all  _ — or gone back in his records to figure out who Levi had been talking about so that he could pull this shit. Of course, it certainly doesn’t escape his mind that Smith has cost his company money by severing his contract with Reeves either, after all, which is something that makes Levi feel wary, particularly after the thoughts he’d had earlier once he’d finished his morning conversation with Petra.

 

Then again, though, Smith Industries is so fucking big and wealthy that this probably doesn’t even matter that much to him, right? Reeves’s money probably barely even makes a  _ dent  _ in his funds, Levi thinks then, and because of that, he kind of wants to be irritated, and pissed, as he can be prideful and he doesn’t fucking need what now amounts to Smith’s leftovers. He doesn’t need his shitty charity either, he thinks, or his help, because it’s not like he can’t get clients on his own, or make sales, or land big deals for Ackerman Securities by himself. Who the fuck does this bastard think he is, doing this shit with Reeves like it was some kind of  _ favor _ , knowing that Levi wouldn’t be able to turn it down? Does he fucking feel sorry for him? For their  _ company _ ? 

 

Had he decided to take pity on Levi from his position at the top of the corporate food chain, because Levi sucks and Ackerman Securities is just going to continue to fall apart even after he takes over and they would be  _ blessed  _ to have his assistance?  _ No,  _ Levi decides this time, a lot of that is probably his pride talking...isn’t it? He hopes so, but either way, despite how he’s easily found multiple reasons to get overly aggravated about this, he doesn’t. It’s not his fucking problem if Smith wants his company to lose money, after all,  _ regardless  _ of the reason that he’d fucking done it, and even if he had let himself get upset, he already knows there is no fucking way that he can let Reeves go — not when Ackerman Securities does need the money desperately, and when this is a huge opportunity for him to bring in a nice chunk of change that will definitely please his mother. 

 

He can’t let his personal issues with Smith get in the way of that as much as he’d kind of like to tell Reeves to fuck off just to see how Smith would react, because...well, if Kuchel were to find out that he’d blown off such a huge deal, she would probably never,  _ ever  _ let him forget it. Although...she’d also probably be suspicious about Smith’s motives just like him if  _ she  _ was the one that Petra had told about Reeves’s arrival, but there’s just no way in hell he’s going to bring up the subject to her until he has to. Hopefully, that will be after he’s gone downstairs, made his pitch, and gotten Reeves to sign a new contract, which is what he knows he has to resolve himself to do, and finally manages after sighing loudly and deciding that he’ll just have to put all his questions about Smith aside and deal with that aspect of this bullshit later. 

 

He has a job to do, he thinks then, and as much as he doesn’t enjoy it, he knows without a doubt that he doesn’t have a fucking choice.  

 

“Well.. _.fuck.” _ He says with that thought, shaking his head in a bit of exasperation — now that he’s resigned himself to this meeting, he realizes he’s not prepared for it at  _ all _ — before he stands up, and starts hurriedly gathering some of what he will need for downstairs from his desk, like a notepad and some pens and his laptop, the latter so that he can just work on drafting the contract down there instead of going back and forth. “Can you just...get me the file, I guess?”

 

“Yeah, I’ll be right back!” Petra replies to that, sounding chipper and excited in the face of Levi’s exhausted sounding request. 

 

Needless to say, although he already feels the beginnings of stress, her attitude does not surprise him. No, she’d looked like she’d wanted to be happy about this, Levi thinks, from the moment she’d walked in, but she had waited and watched him carefully to see how he was going to react. Considering where Reeves had come from, she probably was not wrong in doing so, he thinks, but now that they’re past the point where he would have flipped out, she is clearly  _ thrilled _ at the opportunity that has arisen for him, and ready to help out however she can. She’s hurrying out of his office, in fact, so quickly that Levi barely manages to stop her after thinking of something else that needs to be done — something more important — that had only occured to him just then, probably because he’s still in the middle of figuring out how he will fucking handle all this shit to begin with.

 

“No, wait!” He calls out, halting Petra right before she walks through the doorway. “Shit, I’ll get it. Just...uh, _ fuck _ . Find Eld and Gunther, and tell them what’s going on and that they need to meet me downstairs in ten minutes. See if the receptionist can go ahead and put Reeves in a conference room, too.” 

 

“Sure thing, boss.”

 

Petra makes it out of his office this time and Levi follows her, striding through the door and across the hall into a room where they store all of their files. Bending down, he opens a drawer and hurriedly flips through the tabs until he finds the one he’s looking for — labeled ‘Reeves Company’ — and then pulls it out, standing back up so that he can return to his office while going through all of the papers inside at the same time. There’s email correspondence, he sees, notes and figures and charts and a map of Reeves’s building, and, of course, in addition to all of that, the last draft of the contract they’d offered to Reeves, which Levi takes out to review as he sits back down at his desk.

 

Skimming through that and his notes as fast as he dares, he tries to recall all of the details about what Reeves had needed and the things they’d discussed in depth, but it’s kind of fucking hard when this was a goddamn year ago and he’s  _ so busy _ all the time that he can barely remember what he’d eaten for lunch. Shit like this seems impossible to drum up from his memory when thinking about it like that, to be honest, but somehow, looking through it all refreshes his mind decently enough, and he finds himself wondering how they had  _ seriously  _ lost this contract. The price was fair to Reeves — low, even, while still being enough to bring in profit for them — and it wasn’t like they hadn’t been able to provide everything he’d wanted, because his needs had been pretty basic, and he wonders what the hell Smith had offered him that they could not. An even lower price, perhaps? 

 

That was possible, but also...well, shit, Smith was charming as Levi very well fucking knew, and he has the feeling that he could probably sell rat poison to an actual rat if he had a mind to do it. That would make him ten times a better salesman than Levi actually is, he thinks, and unfortunately, even though Reeves has kind of been returned to him on a silver platter, he’s sure that he still has his work cut out for him when it comes to landing this deal — especially if Smith had provided Reeves with ridiculous discounts and services that Levi could  _ never  _ hope to actually replicate. Smith Industries’ technology is pretty advanced, after all, but god, he sure would look like a fucking fool to Smith and everyone else if he let Reeves get away a second time, and it’s a good thing he works well under pressure, because he suddenly feels no short amount of that shit weighing on his shoulders. 

 

There’s no point continuing to sit in his office and worry about it though, he tells himself, because the 10 minutes he’d taken go by quickly and he  _ knows _ he has to go downstairs to meet Gunther and Eld. Thankfully, they’re already standing outside the conference room Reeves was placed in and have come prepared with their own notes and files, which does make Levi feel a bit better, as three heads are better than one — Gunther is more of a salesman than he is too, since that comprises his entire job unlike Levi, who feels like he has a million different responsibilities that he can barely keep up with — and he at least won’t have to do this shit alone. Petra, too, will likely be a huge help, as she knows numbers and the annoying legal shit in the contracts better than he does, and will be on standby at her desk in case he has to call her. 

 

Thankfully, having his team — and friends — around to support him makes this seem like a slightly less daunting task, although Gunther and Eld are just as flabbergasted as he was at first about how Reeves had shown up. For all of their confusion, however, their feelings cannot compare to that of Reeves himself, who is found sitting very unhappily with a cup of coffee in a conference room. He’s clearly disgruntled, Levi thinks, and as soon as they all exchange greetings and Levi says ‘So...I heard you lost all your security today,’ he launches into a rant and starts cursing and grousing about Smith. He calls him a couple of names because he’s mad — Levi cannot help but find that amusing, naturally — and Levi supposes he cannot blame him, although the ironic part of this is that Reeves has far less of an idea why Smith might have done such a thing than Levi actually does.

 

“It’s just bad business.” He grumbles though, while Levi looks on and raises a brow.

 

“Why do you say that?” He asks, because despite how he knows his question has nothing to do with the job he’s supposed to be doing, his curiosity over Smith’s actions make it hard for him to resist the opportunity to dive a bit deeper. 

 

Naturally, when prompted, Reeves does not fucking disappoint. 

 

“First of all, there was an early termination clause in the contract. He offered to put it in there to protect me more than him, but now he has to refund me half the money I paid him for his services.” Reeves explains, causing Levi’s jaw to nearly drop when he next spits out the exact amount of dollars that Smith suddenly owes him. It’s a pretty big fucking chunk of change, he thinks, at least to Ackerman Securities, but still, he can’t argue against Reeves’s assessment that it’s ‘bad business’ when as far as Levi can tell, he’d basically thrown that money away for nothing. What the  _ hell  _ had he been thinking? “That guy...he had nothing to gain from cancelling it, but it’s about more than just the money. As VP of a contracting company, I’m sure you know that your reputation is important, yeah?”

 

“Yeah.” Levi responds, nodding and blinking, and already able to see where Reeves is going with this.

 

“When I started the Reeves Company, I had one small store next to a gas station. The prices were high and the building was falling apart, but people — the customers — they kept coming back because I treated them right. Word spread, and that’s how I grew. You think what Smith did to me is gonna make me recommend him to anybody?”

 

“No, he screwed you over. Why would you?”

 

“Exactly. Now, just doing it to me won’t ruin him, but if he makes treating his customers like shit a precedent, it’s not going to do him any favors. Sending me to you makes even less sense than that. Isn’t he your main competition?”

 

“Yeah. You could say that.” 

 

“He sure talked you up, though. He told me: ‘go back and see Levi Ackerman, he’s one of the best security consultants in town, he’ll get you everything you want at a reasonable price.’ Are you friends, or something?”

 

It’s a good thing that Levi is decent at keeping up a poker face during business meetings, or he might have faltered at Reeves’s question. That would be fucking bad, he thinks then, because he can see out of the corner of his eye that Gunther and Eld have glanced over to look at him strangely, watching and waiting for his answer to a question that they probably find pretty curious. After all, it would be news to them if Levi had gone and made friends with Erwin Smith recently, or whatever, but obviously, regardless of that, he’s sure as hell not about to give them any type of response that will set their tongues wagging or go to Petra for gossip. Besides, it’s not like he’ll be saying anything but the truth anyway, as he and Smith are _definitely_ not friends, and he hadn’t been fucking asking him to do this shit with Reeves and send him back when he’d made that stupid ‘stealing my client’ comment to him anyway. 

 

“Fuck no.” He replies then, making a face. “I always heard he was an asshole, so why would I be?”

 

Reeves laughs at that, and although Levi does find himself really, really wanting to know if Smith had said anything more about him, he knows better than to ask at that point, and decides they should probably just get around to discussing their potential contract. In doing so, Levi finds out that Reeves had actually been talking to him and Smith at the same time the year before, and that Smith had won out and essentially ensnared Reeves by offering low prices for state of the art equipment and ‘fancy’ new technological options,  _ exactly  _ as Levi had fucking feared. Luckily for him, however, Reeves had apparently decided that although a lot of it was nice, there was nothing wrong with the ‘standard package,’ so to speak, and that he didn’t need it, as it was just a waste of money to him when the normal equipment was fine.

 

Still, Levi shares a subtle look with Gunther and Eld around him when Reeves first mentions it, as that particular issue — the one where Ackerman Securities is not up to date on all the newest security shit, which he had thought about before coming down there — is one they had discussed many, many times among each other before. It’s just...a frustrating topic, Levi thinks, because he knows that’s one of the reasons they’re losing money and clients, causing them to ever so slowly become more and more of an ‘old fashioned’ company and...well, out of date. Obviously, that’s not something that will change unless they start offering new tech, but the problem is his mother, who says they don’t have the money to work on developing it or acquiring it from outside sources. 

 

Because of that, they’re basically caught in a circle of failure that makes it even harder for Levi to do his shitty fucking job, he feels, but for now there are at least clients like Reeves still around, who seem to actually prefer keeping things simple, although those seem to be becoming rarer and rarer as the years go by. Still, it works in their favor sometimes, as does the fact that Reeves is in a huge bind and not hiding his desperation from Levi as much as he thinks he is, meaning that even though it takes almost the entire rest of the goddamn day, after outlining all of Reeves’s needs, discussing what they can offer, and establishing pricing, Levi and his co-workers write up a new contract and are finally able to seal the deal with Reeves and get him to sign on the dotted line.

 

It wasn’t easy — he’d had to work his ass off to confirm all kinds of shit, he thinks, like whether or not they could send a team out that day to start setting up cameras, as well as provide security guards free of charge until that was done — but the agreement they’d come up with is beneficial to them both, although probably moreso for Ackerman Securities, because Levi is able to squeeze out more money from Reeves than he might have otherwise since he really has nowhere else to fucking go. Because of that, Levi is pretty pleased by the end of everything, he can’t deny it, although not so much as his mother, who had found out what he was doing during the day and wraps him up in a huge hug once he finishes and goes to her office to tell her the good news.

 

She cheers, in fact, and wraps her arms around his head and gives him a huge kiss on the cheek that has him sighing and grumbling, particularly because Petra is in the room, although truth be told, he doesn’t think that she’ll tease him about that, at least not this day, because she, along with Kuchel, Gunther, and Eld, is happy, and probably proud of him for finally having a big victory in what often only seems like long streams of failure and...well uninspired mediocrity. Will his mother get off his ass for a while now, Levi wonders then? That would be nice, but even just easing off some of the ridiculous fucking pressure might make him hate his days there less, he thinks, at least for a while, because although he certainly hasn’t single-handedly saved their company from bankruptcy or anything like that, he’d just made what will probably be one of the biggest deals they’ll get all year, if not the biggest. 

 

Because of that, he knows he should be ecstatic like Petra and the others, but...well, despite the fact that he’s not  _ unhappy _ about it, of course, he’s still just perplexed with how it had all started in the first place, and can’t stop fucking thinking about it even after he returns to his office and things settle down again. What the hell was Smith playing at, he wonders? Was he playing at anything? Levi waffles on it, knowing that when Reeves had walked in, the only plausible answers he had come up with as to why Smith had screwed the man over were the possibilities that it was a trick, or that he had wanted to elicit some sort of response from Levi himself. What could that be, though? Was he trying to impress him, or something? Had he thought it would charm him, or, as he had first wondered, did he send Levi back his self-proclaimed client because he hoped it would help Levi to believe what he’d told him the other day?

 

If that was the case, Levi thinks, then it’d be pretty fucking pointless because he has already decided he can’t say whether he trusts Smith or not considering his supposed shady and disreputable business practices, and to be honest, this entire situation has just made those feelings worse. True enough, Levi finds himself grappling with even  _ more  _ fucking questions about Smith than he already had earlier, because he still finds it baffling that he would pull the plug on his arrangment with Reeves in the first place, much less do it to try and please another man. Would he really go to such insane lengths to get Levi to believe that he’s not a piece of shit? Would he do it just because he ‘likes’ him as Petra had concluded, or was it too much to assume that it would only be about him when this could be some part of his long game to get the Ackermans to sell their company?

 

Perhaps he thinks that in the end, once he acquires it, the profits will outweigh the losses that he’d accrued when he’d cancelled his contract with Reeves, but isn’t that a huge, ridiculous fucking gamble? To Levi it is — Smith had not only cost his company the continued revenue from Reeves’s contract, but also another huge, upfront chunk of change because of how he’d broken that early elimination clause — but that’s probably because Ackerman Securities doesn’t have the income for Levi to just toy around with like it’s all some sort of fucking game to begin with. For fuck’s sake, he has to answer to his mother too and she would  _ never  _ forgive him if he ever did some kind of shit like that no matter the reason, but still, Reeves had been right when he’d said it wasn’t just about the money. 

 

No, screwing a client over, basically sending him to a rival company in gift wrap, like a present, and taking those kinds of risks certainly won’t do Smith’s reputation any favors, although Levi knows that Smith isn’t actually fucking stupid.  _ He  _ knows  _ Smith  _ is more than aware of how this could affect the way that his potential clients perceive him too, but despite how ridiculous it all might seem, he’d done it anyway, and Levi just cannot stop wondering the fuck why, perhaps because the gesture in and of itself was so  _ large  _ to actually begin with. Indeed, releasing a client and sending him to your business rival was a lot more dramatic than fucking flowers, Levi thinks, but either way, whether Smith was trying to get on Levi’s good side only — why would he care what Levi thinks of him that much though? — or setting up some other kind of corporate trap, Levi knows that frustratingly enough, there is only one real way to fucking find out. 

 

Strangely, he doesn’t feel as object to the thought as he would have even earlier that morning, but despite that, he tries to get back to work because being downstairs all afternoon means he is now behind on his reports. Unfortunately, however, he can’t really concentrate, because Smith’s building is in his line of sight and the roses are nearby that — although they  _ are  _ hidden under a fucking curtain, which was where Levi had placed them that morning — and predictably enough, just like the waving comment from Smith’s email, Levi is too curious for his own good and can’t get the question out of his head to the point that he’s  _ dying _ to know the answer. Of course, he doesn’t expect that he would automatically believe any explanation Smith might give him if they were to talk, but at the very least, he can’t deny that he wants to hear what Smith’s answer will be if he were to actually ask him the fucking question.

 

Should he, though? He doesn’t know, but regardless of that, this time, it takes him two weeks less to decide that he’s going to do it anyway.

 

Stil, he waits until around 4:55 — until his office is quiet again after everyone is done telling him ‘good job’ and ‘congratulations’ — and until Petra and anyone else who might bother him are gone, having been given his permission to leave about 30 minutes before that as thanks for their assistance earlier that afternoon. Of course, his mother is probably still working, he knows, but she’s all the way in the opposite corner of the building, and has most likely locked herself into her own office to take advantage of it all in an effort to get more tasks done. That means, essentially, that he probably won’t be bothered if he were to make a personal phone call, but even so, he uses his cell phone, because he’s paranoid and he doesn’t want a record of him calling Smith after hours in case Kenny decides to be nosy and look into all of that shit for the office.

 

_ “Erwin Smith.” _ Is what Levi hears when he answers his call, moments after Levi had found his cell number and punched it into his own, lifting the thing to his ear and leaning back into his chair quick before he’d ended up changing his mind. 

 

“...hey Smith.” Levi replies to him quietly, paying no thought to the bullshit way that his heart jumps into his throat when he first hears Smith’s voice. “It’s me. The guy whose dick you sucked the other day.”

 

_ “Levi.” _

 

“Yeah, unless you’ve been sucking off any other men in your office.”

 

_ “I have not. I’ve only been thinking about doing it to you again instead.” _

 

At that, Levi finds himself swearing internally, feeling suddenly derailed as he had  _ obviously _ not been expecting Smith to just fucking say something like that right out of the gate. It catches him off guard, but he’d be lying to himself if he were to say that it bothered him, because it doesn't. Instead, it causes him to feel a familiar flicker of excitement, and he finds himself biting his lip — while his thoughts wander,  _ naturally  _ — and going silent for a second, apparently long enough for Smith to decide he needs to continue himself. 

 

_ “What can I do for you, Levi?” _ He asks, reminding Levi that, although having Smith’s low, deep baritone coming into his ear like this isn’t bad, he’d called him for a reason and it wasn’t to talk about fucking blowjobs — not that he’d  _ planned _ , at least.

 

“Well…” He starts with that in mind, sitting back up in his chair and adopting more of a no nonsense tone,  _ just  _ to let Smith know that he isn’t there for any bullshit — although, of course, he is certainly nowhere near being as enraged as he was the last time they’d talked about Smith’s actions. “First, you can tell me what the big idea is with that shit you pulled earlier. What the hell, Smith?”

 

_ “What?” _

 

“What do you fucking mean, ‘what?’ Do you really think sitting there and acting like you don’t know is going to work on me right now?”

 

_ “I’m really not sure. Are you talking about the flowers?” _

 

“No!” Levi exclaims then, because goddammit, would it  _ kill _ Smith to be straightforward? How can he make Levi come so hard and also be so fucking  _ aggravating? _ It doesn’t make sense, and his stupid feigned innocence routine just further stokes Levi’s impatience. “I’m not talking about the fucking flowers! I’m talking about Dimo Reeves, who showed up at my office earlier! Are you saying you don’t know anything about that shit,  _ really?”   _

 

_ “Ah...no. I do know about that. I’m sorry, I just didn’t expect him to go straight over there after I hung up with him.” _ Smith replies, chuckling in a way that would have made Levi narrow his eyes and feel murderous less than a week ago.

 

Now, however, he’s cowed by the admission instead, although he reminds himself — because he feels like he’s on a slippery slope there already — that he still hasn’t gotten to the bottom of it, Smith isn’t necessarily trustworthy, and he  _ cannot _ start thinking about the man’s dick. 

 

“So you really did what he said, then? He was pretty pissed at you, you know. He thinks you’re fucking stupid, and called you a bunch of names and shit.”

 

_ “Well, I doubt they were worse than the ones that you were calling me.” _

 

Despite himself, Levi snorts at that, and has to agree. “Yeah. That’s true. They weren’t.”

 

There is a short second of silence, and during that time, Levi swears that he can somehow sense the smile that Smith is wearing on his face — one that shows up in his voice when he asks him a question of his own too.  _ “So, what happened? Did it turn out well for you?” _

 

“Sure.” Levi answers, knowing what Smith means by that: had he gotten Reeves to sign a contract, and earned his company some money? “But there’s no way in hell I’m gonna thank you. You know that, right?”

 

_ “I wasn’t expecting it.” _

 

“Good, because you just need to tell me why the fuck you did it. Is this another trick, or what?”

 

_ “Another trick? No, Levi. It’s the opposite, and I thought I told you: I want you to believe that I wasn’t trying to mislead you on purpose before. I thought I could try and show you, and I wondered if perhaps you might take this as a gesture of good faith...or that’s what I had been hoping for, at least.”  _

 

“And why the hell would I think that?”

 

_ “At our last meeting, you told me I’d stolen your client. I figured out it was Mr. Reeves, and then I sent him back.”   _

 

Levi actually scoffs at how simple Smith makes it sound; yeah, sure, he  _ had  _ told Smith that, but at the end of the day, he’s pretty sure they both know that Reeves hadn’t technically, truly been Levi’s client no matter the bullshit that he’d said. He hadn’t yet been signed up with Ackerman Securities at that point, after all, and although Levi had taken it personally as fuck when he’d remembered what had happened the other day, he knows deep down that what Smith had done — offering a potential customer a different and better deal — was just business. He hadn’t actually ‘stolen’ anything, and Reeves had admitted to Levi that he’d called Smith on his own because he’d been out there shopping around. That wasn’t unusual either, and...well, fucking  _ whatever _ . 

 

He’d gotten over that shit as quickly as he’d gotten angry about it by then, but, of course, Smith doesn’t know that. He still doesn’t know that Levi isn’t sure that he can trust him or his explanation about his motives at the hotel yet because he’s wary about getting into another mess — not that Levi has decided to tell him or anything, though, because he hasn’t — but...how does he feel about this new development? Unsurprisingly, he doesn’t know, and isn’t sure, because he’s not just going to take Smith’s word for it. After all, it’s not like Smith would tell him if he was up to some fucking  _ chicanery _ , or whatever, or what his plan to manipulate them was if he had one, right? In all actuality, he’d pretty much just said the thing that made the most sense for  _ him _ whether it was actually true or not, Levi thinks, which essentially leaves him with no more answers than he’d had at the start of the phone call.

 

Strangely, though, or perhaps not so much at all, just as he had the last time they’d had a conversation like this, Levi suddenly finds that...well, now that he’d heard what Smith had to say, his curiosity is satisfied for the moment and it kind of no longer feels that important _,_ at least not right then. No, despite how he’d needed to know so badly not even five minutes ago that he’d fucking called Smith to find out, despite how this doesn’t necessarily make him any more trusting of Smith either, his mind is focusing less and less on the purpose of this call by the second, and more on...well, something else. Needless to say, that something else is the very thing that they had ended up doing 48 hours ago, as thinking about Smith all day, hearing his voice in his ear over the phone, and recognizing that Reeves, along with the flowers, were attempts to get his attention at least in _some_ way — it kind of excites him when he thinks about it like that, he can’t deny it, no matter the reason — have just made him fucking horny, and all he really wants to do all of a sudden is have mind blowing sex again with Smith in his office. 

 

Of course, Smith’s blowjob comment earlier had not fucking helped at all, nor had his conversation that morning with Petra, as although they hadn’t just talked about Levi getting laid, it had still caused him to relive every detail of the  _ last  _ tryst they’d had when he’d been discussing everything with her. Even while he’d been trying to decide whether he trusted Smith he’d also been remembering how he’d licked come off Levi’s fingers one at a fucking time, he thinks, because he’d wanted to  _ taste  _ him that much, and he was beginning to suspect that he had not yet gotten all the lust out of his system just yet. Would he ever? At that point, he doesn’t know, but in his current state — the one where he now wants Smith to fuck him again _ very badly  _ — he just isn’t sure that it really matters.

 

Yeah, okay, he  _ had  _ felt against having another meeting with the man that morning for the most part when he’d been talking to Petra, but that had just been in regards to whether or not Levi wanted to fully make amends with him, or whatever. This, what he’s contemplating now, would be just sex, but hadn’t he also started to have some second thoughts about doing it with a guy who might want to screw his family over? Hadn’t he been a bit irritated with himself for acting so rash two days ago? Yes, he thinks, he had, but now he’s acknowledging that, and thinking about it more, and… well, would another time  _ really _ be that big of a deal? Would it hurt anything, even after the most recent developments with Reeves, and even if Smith is an asshole? 

 

No, Levi tells himself, probably fucking not if he just goes over there quick and then leaves, although regardless, Levi is willing to admit that the pull he feels — the want for Smith’s hands on him again, for his lips and his fingers and his cock — is too strong for him to pass up, and so after remaining silent for a time where Smith had let him think uninterrupted, he swallows, and decides he’ll puzzle out Smith’s explanation about the day’s events later, allowing the giddy, excited fluttering in his belly to now flow free and lead the way instead.

 

“Hey, are you still there?” Levi asks, aware of how his voice comes out a bit lower now, like a purr, and decidedly far less exasperated than it had been earlier.

 

_ “Yes.” _

 

“Are you still at work?”

 

_ “Always. Why?” _

 

“I dunno...I just thought that maybe you might like to have another ‘meeting.’ What do you think?”

 

_ “I guess that depends on what kind of meeting it is that you actually want to have. Are you proposing that we discuss Mr. Reeves in person?” _

 

“No, I mean like the kind we had the other day. You said you were looking forward to fucking me in your office again on that card you sent, right?”

 

_ “Well, I didn’t say it like that.” _

 

Again, there is a smile in Smith’s voice when he says that, and despite himself and what they’re discussing, Levi has to snort in what is honest to god, genuine amusement — a feeling brought on by the fact that it had been obvious what Smith had meant no matter the way he’d said it. “Yeah, you were  _ real  _ fucking subtle there, Smith.”

 

_ “Would you have preferred me to say it your way?”  _

 

“Why don’t you just say it like that now, and I’ll be there in 15 minutes?”

 

At that, Smith laughs, but then remains silent for a second or two, like he’s thinking or something, and although it’s not for very long, enough time passes for Levi to again wonder like he had before if Smith is going to refuse him, or to throw him some kind of ultimatum that basically amounts to ‘I’ll fuck you if we can talk about my excuses.’ If that happens, Levi will probably just end up hanging up on the bastard and that will be that, he won’t contact him  _ ever _ again, but thankfully, Smith answers him exactly the way he wants, and in a voice that ends up sending a tingly warm shiver down the entire length of Levi’s spine.

 

_“I’m looking forward to fucking_ _you in my office again, Levi.”_ He murmurs, putting so much emphasis on the word ‘fucking’ that Levi _swears_ his cock twitches in response. _“Come straight up to me this time, and I’ll give you what you want. Hard and rough after I’ve bent you over, right?”_

 

Levi doesn’t even bother to answer or say goodbye before he hangs up the phone. Instead, he gets up from his chair so fast that it rolls a good foot or two backward, and leaves his office while hastily shoving his cell into his back pocket. Heading straight for the stairs, he takes them two at a time down six floors before he practically rockets through the lobby and out the front entrance, feeling thankful that he doesn’t have to worry about running into anyone who would question why he’s flushed and practically flying out of the building because they’re all gone. Instead of that, and instead of having to feel any concerns about leaving during the middle of the day either, he makes his way to Smith’s office, feeling his heart hammering in his chest while his stomach fills up with anticipatory butterflies.

 

It puts a skip in his step, to be honest, and for that reason, his mood is a lot different than last time when he reaches the building and walks in. Unlike last time too, he notes, the place is pretty empty because it’s now past 5, and he’s the only one in the elevator when he rides it up to Smith’s offices. The receptionist there is gone and the security guard pays him no mind — Smith must have told him he was coming, he thinks, which was why he was instructed to ‘come straight up’ — and because of that, Levi doesn’t loiter there either and does as Smith told him, taking the second elevator on his own, and finding himself on the very top floor of the skyscraper in what feels like less than a minute. Hurriedly, he strides down the hall towards the big wooden doors and doesn’t even bother to stop and knock, as he feels too excited by then, enough so that he just flings one open without another thought to find Smith seated at his desk, waiting on him to arrive just as he’d imagined he would. 

 

As soon as Levi sees him, he stops, and Smith jumps to his feet. They share a look like that, but neither of them speak, and Smith doesn’t offer him any sort of words or smiles in greeting like he had last time. Instead, he’s too busy staring at Levi like he’s a four course meal that he’s about to devour, which lets Levi know that his lack of politeness isn’t because he’s unhappy to see him or anything like that, but because he’s  _ clearly  _ already focused on what’s about to happen. His eyes and his expression show that he’s pretty riled up already, in fact, and so after a sharp thrill goes through Levi’s body when Smith very visibly looks him up and down, he doesn’t hesitate any longer to close the door, lock them in, and stride across the room and around Smith’s desk so he can kiss him. 

 

Actually, he practically throws himself at the man again, to be honest, and wraps his arms around Smith’s neck as he reaches out to catch him, but doesn’t even bother to give a shit about how fucking desperate he probably seems when Smith is practically dragging him off his feet and up to his chest anyway. He moves his lips over Levi’s so eagerly that  _ he  _ actually makes a surprised sounding noise in his throat, in fact, but of course, it’s not a complaint, because he has absolutely no problem with Smith’s excitement at all, and only just wonders if he’d been thinking about this the entire time Levi had been walking over and is now ready to fucking explode — something that he can relate to, and that just makes his lust worse, along with the fact that he’s now in Smith’s arms, close to him, and feeling his warmth and tasting his mouth and smelling his skin  _ all  _ to the point where it overwhelms his senses. 

 

Because of that, he basically forgets himself right away and starts tugging Smith’s shirt from his pants so that he can touch him without hesitation, although that causes Smith to grab his arms in turn, moving him backwards towards his desk so that the next thing Levi knows is that he’s being pushed onto it by Smith’s body, ending up lying flat beneath him after he’d leaned over to shove stacks of papers onto the floor haphazardly to make room. Levi doesn’t see him do it, of course, but he feels him, and he hears it, knowing that it’s the sound of dozens of documents crashing to the floor and fluttering through the air wildly behind him. In any other situation, he thinks, he probably would have fucking groaned at the mess, but right then Smith’s actions just reflect the extreme sense of urgency he feels, and the noise he lets out in response is just one of pure need instead. 

 

“Ah,  _ fuck.” _ He gasps too, after Smith tears his mouth away from his own to shove his face into his neck, licking and kissing at him there while he digs his fingers sharply into one thigh.  

 

He’d positioned himself in between both of Levi’s legs when he’d shoved him onto the desk, naturally, and needless to say, because that’s right where Levi wants him, he doesn’t hesitate to wrap them tightly around Smith’s waist, squirming underneath him and lifting his ass in an effort to look for more contact already — at least until Smith grabs his side with one hand, anyway, and moves so that he can pin him to the desk with his hips, nipping at Levi’s neck right above his collarbone before he shifts again to start clumsily working at his belt. While he does that, Levi goes back to his attempts to get Smith’s fucking shirt off, but finds that when his fingers work at the buttons they slip and shake because he can  _ feel  _ Smith’s erection pressing up against his belly, causing him to end up swearing, and to decide all of a sudden that the buttons can go fuck themselves as he just tears Smith’s shirt open himself. 

 

The tiny fasteners go flying — or about half of them do, at least, because Levi had only pulled at the top part of the garment — and Levi hears what is obviously a very loud ripping sound, and a split second later, he finds himself faced with a surprised Smith, who has stopped what he’s doing to lift his head, to now look at Levi with wide eyes as he very clearly appears to be taken aback by what he’d just done. To be honest, Levi is kind of taken aback at himself for literally wrenching the man’s shirt open, he admits, because he’d really done it without thinking, although it’s not like he feels bad or gives a shit when he can now see and touch most of Smith’s chest. That’s all that he’d fucking wanted, and so instead of remorse, he just does as he desires and puts his hands on Smith’s skin, pinching his nipples as hard as he can and drawing a sharp, satisfying gasp from his throat.

 

Levi’s teasing drives Smith back into action too, unsurprisingly, and Levi finds himself kissed on the mouth again,  _ hard _ , but rather than return his fingers to his belt, Levi hears Smith jerking open one of the drawers in his desk so that he can shove his hand inside and search around in it. Because of that, because Levi is pretty sure he knows what Smith is looking for — lube, and a condom — he abruptly experiences a fresh surge of excitement and arousal, as the thought of feeling Smith’s slick cock in his ass very soon makes him more wound up, and impatient, and he bucks his hips in response, taking advantage of Smith’s small distraction so that he can slide fingers into his hair and tighten them around the blonde strands roughly. 

 

Jerking his head back, Levi presses his open mouth to the perfect column of Smith’s throat, taking a turn to lick and suck and nibble at  _ his  _ skin teasingly, although he stops short of leaving a mark, mostly because he finds himself pausing suddenly and cracking his eyes open, fixing them on Smith’s neck so that he can see the one that he’d actually left before — fading and pink instead of angry and red, but still clearly visible right underneath the line of Smith’s jaw. Seeing it, Levi honest to fucking god finds himself nearly smiling, because he’d kind of forgotten about it after he’d departed from Smith’s office the last time. Now, however, he remembers how he’d left it there, how he’d sucked hard enough on Smith’s skin to make him groan, and the way that — after glimpsing his handiwork right before he’d left — he’d purposefully kept his mouth shut about it even after Smith had told him he had a meeting. 

 

Had he made it all the way there without noticing the damned thing, allowing all of his co-workers to see it? Levi is suddenly dying to know, but ridiculously enough, he doesn’t even have to ask, because Smith has picked up on his very noticeable pause and, perhaps unsurprisingly, seems to know  _ exactly  _ what it is that he’s thinking.

 

“Reviewing your handiwork?” He murmurs to Levi, in fact, with some playfulness to his tone that is impossible to miss. “You made me the butt of quite a few jokes in my office this week. Are you happy?”

 

“People laughed at you?” Levi asks in response, hearing his own voice come out husky from all the lust, and perhaps with an undertone of teasing satisfaction because of what Smith had just admitted to him too.

 

“My co-workers... _ my friends... _ they teased me, but really they all just wanted to know where I’d gotten it from.”

 

Suddenly, Levi’s carefree amusement turns into cold concern, and he freezes from where he’d been pressing his lips lightly to the mark again, finding himself letting go of Smith’s hair so that he can lower his head back down onto the desk and look him in the eye. “...you didn’t fucking  _ tell  _ them, did you?”

 

“No.” Smith replies, while Levi relaxes in relief just as quickly as he’d tensed up. For a moment there, he thinks, he’d been afraid that Smith had actually gone and spilled the beans — he hadn’t specifically told him to keep this a secret, he recalls, because he’d assumed it had been understood — and was ready to lose his shit, but now that he knows he doesn’t have to he just goes right back to what he’d been doing before: kissing Smith’s throat. “I didn’t think you would want that.”

 

“You thought right.” Levi murmurs, mumbling while he licks the mark teasingly, and then  _ does  _ contemplate leaving another one, even going so far as to mischievously scrape his teeth along Smith’s skin and suck lightly before...well, before he’s abruptly  _ stopped _ , jerked away by Smith who had reached up to grab his chin and turned it to the side roughly. 

 

_ “Ah,  _ you’re being too naughty.” He says playfully, pretending to chide Levi with a click of his tongue, but fixing him with eyes that are obviously full of amusement.

 

They’re bright, Levi sees, and his face is red and his lips shiny and his blonde hair is falling into his face, and although he’d been about to squirm and jerk his chin out of Smith’s grip, he ends up absolutely subdued for a moment, stopped by the sight of him because god,  _ fuck _ , he’s so gorgeous that the word itself doesn’t even seem like enough to describe him and he doesn’t know if he’ll  _ ever  _ get used to it, but whatever — rather than move him emotionally or any shit like that, Levi just feels even more lustful, and finds himself torn between staying still or shoving him flat on the desk so that he can ride him until his throat is raw and his thighs are aching from the exertion. 

 

He’d be able to stare at that face the entire time, he thinks, even though he  _ knows  _ that is definitely something he shouldn’t fucking do, but either way, whatever he might have chosen, the issue is decided for him when Smith continues speaking, licking his lips before he ducks down to suck at Levi’s throat gently just as  _ he  _ had been doing to Smith earlier. 

 

“Unless you want one to match. That’s only fair, right?” He murmurs too, distracting Levi from his muddled thoughts because of how his words irritate him instead — just a bit.

 

“Fair? Are you serious?” He says, narrowing his eyes and wondering if he will ever have one encounter with Smith where he doesn’t act like a smartass. “I was only returning the favor, you fucker.”

 

“How so?”

 

“At the hotel...you left one on me! On my neck and all over my fucking legs too, and—

 

Smith silences Levi with a kiss, and Levi swears he both hears and feels his chest rumbling with laughter. His lips are curved up into a smile while he moves his mouth over Levi’s too, he realizes, and despite himself, although he’d been scowling, Levi melts into it after a second and ends up echoing Smith’s amusement with a small huff exhaled through his nose. He can’t help it, honestly, because he’s having fun and he supposes he doesn’t have it in himself to  _ truly  _ get pissy with Smith right then — not when he’s about to get fucking laid, which is far more important in that moment anyway — although he  _ does  _ lift his head to glance up sharply in confusion when Smith pulls away to stand up.

 

“Turn over.” He tells Levi breathlessly, eyeing him up and down in a hungry way while shedding his tie and ruined shirt. “Take off your pants.”

 

For a moment, Levi does not respond, because he’s too busy pushing himself up onto his elbows so that he can look at Smith standing in front of him. His eyes rake over his body too, of course, taking him in, fixating on his now bare chest, broad shoulders, and all the beauty that makes up the rest of him,  _ including  _ the erection that’s very obviously tenting the front of Smith’s own pants. It’s the sight of that, of his covered cock — or rather, the lack of an  _ unobstructed  _ view — that causes Levi to momentarily ignore Smith’s request, to remain still while staring pointedly at Smith’s bulge, right before he raises an eyebrow and glances back up and into his face.  

 

“You first.” He tells him, licking his lips and feeling immensely pleased when, unlike him, Smith doesn’t hesitate to do as he’d been told. 

 

No, instead of turning  _ his  _ command around — not that Levi doesn’t intend to eventually comply though, because he does — Smith just adopts a small, amused sort of smirk and looks down at his belt, moving his hands to the buckle and making quick work of it before he goes to open his pants too. A second later, and they’re on the floor, and once Smith’s underwear is removed as well, Levi’s eyes are locked onto the very mouthwatering sight of Smith tall and naked before him, and more specifically on what it was that he’d found himself so hungrily wanting to see in the first place: the man’s cock, standing up impressively enough to  _ still  _ make Levi’s heart pound in excitement even now, even during this third tryst, and out from in between a pair of strong thighs and a nest of golden, wiry blonde curls. 

 

He’s very fucking hard, Levi sees — red, stiff, and straining and wet with pre-come — and while he stares with an open mouth, Smith steps forward again to stand between his still clothed legs, grabbing at the back of Levi’s thigh as if to remind him he has not yet done what Smith had asked. He holds him there, looking at Levi with an expression that is heated and serious — he notices it after he finally manages to tear his gaze away from where Smith’s cock had ended up mere inches away from his own bulge — and although it had taken him a moment to realize that he’s suddenly so fucking aroused that his mouth has gone dry, although their hurried, almost frantic pace from when Levi had first entered the room has abated somewhat, he suddenly feels the urgency and the desperation return in full force, and veritably springs into action, practically scrambling to turn over while Smith backs away just as quickly to give him some room. 

 

“Fuck.” Levi swears while he moves, hearing himself panting loud already as he plants his feet on the floor and immediately bends over the desk. At the same time, he reaches for his belt to hopefully comply with the rest of Smith’s request as quickly as he can too, but ends up struggling a bit to get it all undone because of how his hands are shaking with lust and too much anticipation. “Fuck.  _ Dammit,  _ come  _ on.” _

 

Managing after a second or two longer than he would have liked, Levi shoves his pants and underwear down with gusto and jerks his foot out of one of the legs, lifting it and moving to draw his knee up and onto the desk while Smith slicks himself up behind him. The placement of his thigh spreads him open, he knows, and exposes himself completely to Smith’s surely sharp eye, although he doesn’t take long to look, because no sooner than Levi had positioned himself on the desk his hand is suddenly on his calf, grabbing onto it with a tight grip as he presses up behind him and pushes a finger into his ass. Like before, he makes sure there’s enough lube and that Levi is relaxed enough quickly — although he follows Levi’s urging, the way he rocks backward, and the sound of his voice — and adds a second, and a third, and then pulls them out so he can then exchange the digits for his cock instead. 

 

Immediately, Levi starts moaning again and doesn’t stop, because Smith works himself in without pause, sliding deeper and deeper until his balls hit Levi’s backside and he’s completely filled with his girth. Seconds later, Levi feels, and he’s started moving too, slowly and steadily beginning to fuck up into him with quick, shallow thrusts that are already hard enough to almost make Levi cry out. Whatever sounds he might have made, however, would’ve been echoed by Smith, who is noisily grunting behind him with each snap of his hips while he digs his fingers bruisingly into Levi’s thighs. Gradually, he picks up the pace over time to fuck him faster and faster and faster too, all until the force of his thrusts have pushed Levi up onto his damned tiptoes and further onto the desk. 

 

Smith, too, has bent over a bit to lean over him by then, having planted both his palms down somewhere by Levi’s head and inadvertently given him something to hold onto. Before that, he’d just been scrabbling at the wood beneath him — he’d knocked off a stack of folders, in fact, but it wasn’t his fucking fault that Smith had missed them before — but now he grabs at one of Smith’s wrists with his left hand, finding that he’s close enough above him so that he can reach up and clutch at a chunk of his hair with his right, fisting his fingers in it on purpose and then roughly jerking his head to the side when the action makes Smith groan. His breath hitches too, Levi notices, in between all the loud panting and gasping he’d been hearing before that, but it just makes him go harder, pushing him to the edge of his control which Levi already knows that he  _ always  _ loves to fucking see.

 

At that point, after another tug and the digging of his nails into the skin of Smith’s wrist, the man is fucking him so forcefully that Levi can hear the sound of his belly and thighs slapping up against his ass and echoing around his office like he craves, and suspects from how his movements are starting to become more desperate and less coordinated that he’s about to actually come. That’s fucking fine, obviously, because Levi is nearly there too, as this entire time the underside of his cock has been bouncing and brushing up against Smith’s desk, stimulating him in a way that had been light and teasing enough at first for him to think that it might drive him mad. Thankfully, it hadn’t, and now that he’s become tense, and taut — the feeling aided by how his thighs are still spread so wide with his leg up on the desk — it’s more than enough to get him over the edge, and he comes after another few moments where his mind wildly starts to wonder if he might break.

 

Rather than that, of course, he’s immediately consumed by a rush of sensation so pleasurable that he doesn’t even hear himself let out a succession of loud, shaky moans in response, as all he can feel is the intense bliss for several seconds, although they last a lot longer than he might have thought, because Smith has continued to fuck him through his orgasm and is still pounding into him relentlessly. He keeps going for just a moment longer, Levi feels, until he finishes with a deep, resounding groan too, faltering in his quick movements and only managing to chase the pleasure for another few seconds with a couple of long, lazy thrusts. At that point, once he’s done, he practically collapses on top of Levi, whose head feels hazy, like he’s fucked out, probably because...well, _ obviously  _ he is _.  _ He’s been reduced to nothing but a used, trembling, and weak mess, in fact, because right then he’s not sure whether he could stand on his own two feet much less get up and walk out of Smith’s office. 

 

His legs are shaky, and he’s fucking filthy too — covered in a sheen of sweat that has soaked through the back of his shirt and plastered his bangs to his forehead. Drool is on his mouth and there’s come beneath him on the desk in addition to all of that shit as well, but even though he’s lying right in it, he can’t find it in himself to be disgusted or embarrassed because he feels so goddamn satisfied and sated. It’s enough so that he ends up staying there for a bit even after Smith pushes himself up and pulls out, he thinks, enjoying the afterglow by himself and not really thinking about what might be going on behind him until he abruptly feels something brushing over his ass. It’s Smith, of course, and what he’s touching him with ends up being the arm of his ruined shirt, as he’s apparently decided to use it to clean them both up, and taken the liberty to wipe the mess of lube from Levi’s ass and thighs himself. 

 

However, because the touch surprises him — and because it’s just...gentle, too gentle, and feels more intimate and soft than Levi is willing to allow — he’s suddenly jolted out of his blissful haze, ending up standing to his feet suddenly, and turning around and pulling his pants back up so fast that Smith’s eyes widen as he stares at him in confusion. 

 

“Are you alright?” He asks too, looking in between Levi’s face, and where he’s now holding his pants up by the belt as if to cover himself up. 

 

“Yeah.” Levi responds, managing to relax a bit from where he’d gotten tense, although not enough to stop him from moving to hastily zip, button, and buckle the piece of clothing back up. “Yeah, just don’t...don’t do that.”

 

“Don’t do what?”

 

“Fucking...touch me, like that.”

 

“You mean clean you up?”

 

“Yeah. Whatever. Just don’t, okay? I can do it myself.” 

 

“Alright…” Smith responds slowly, looking at him very closely and curiously and like he wants to ask why, but thankfully — at least for the moment — deciding that he shouldn’t. 

 

Obviously, Levi is glad because he now feels fucking awkward, and uncomfortable, and he sure as hell doesn’t want to explain why he’d rebuffed Smith like that when he  _ knows  _ it would just lead the conversation into all of the other shit that he doesn’t want to discuss either — shit that Smith could still bring up at any moment, regardless of whether or not he’d chosen to ask Levi why he can’t wipe off his fucking ass. Because of that, Levi tells himself then that it’s probably time for him to leave now that this, the sex, is over, although before he can, Smith is apparently intent on revealing his smarmy bastard act one more time as if he purposefully  _ enjoys  _ getting underneath Levi’s skin. Is he annoyed, put out, or frustrated by Levi’s behavior? Smith’s next comments make him wonder and think that it could be the last part, although it’s hard to tell, especially when he could just as easily be teasing him again instead.

 

“Can I clean this up, then?” He asks Levi in a blank tone, gesturing to the mess of come, lube, and spit that’s now drying on top of his desk. “Or would you rather do it? I don’t mind, but I wouldn’t want to insult you since you’re so capable.”

 

At that, Levi’s expression predictably twists into something like disbelief and offense as he meets Smith’s eye again, but rather than argue, he ends up just sighing loudly and dramatically, and snatching the shirt Smith still has in his hand so he really can just do it himself. As he does so, he happens to get a glimpse at the tag and notices that it must have been very expensive — the brand is popular but pricey, Levi knows, like 100 dollars per fucking shirt — and files that away as something for him to be really, really smug about later because of how he’d ruined it. Wiping up all the evidence of their activities with the damned thing like it was a dirty rag kind of amuses him too, but it’s not enough for him to not fling the piece of clothing back into Smith’s lap once he’s done, although he can’t lie and say his scowl doesn’t melt in the face of Smith’s small, teasing smile. 

 

“Smartass.” Levi still mutters, however, even though he now doesn’t mean it, and there’s no real venom or aggression behind his words either — particularly when he knows Smith will have to clean up the fallen papers all by himself later. “I gotta go, okay? I have shit to do. We can talk another time.”

 

“Alright.” Smith says again, seeming to acknowledge Levi’s statement, but leaning back in his chair to watch him adjust his clothing and hair a bit more all the same. 

 

Levi is trying to straighten it all, of course, to make his appearance somewhat acceptable before he goes to leave Smith’s building, although truth be told, he doesn’t actually give that much of a shit this time because there’s no way in hell he’s going back to the office. No, he thinks, he’s going to go home, pour himself a glass of wine, and soak in the bath, as that all sounds like the perfect way to wind down and prolong the relaxed, satisfied mood he’s now in after what had turned out to be a very stressful, very high stakes kind of day. Seeing anyone he knows on the way home is unlikely because he just plans to walk outside and catch a cab as well, and so with all of that in mind, the only things he really does is tuck his shirt back into his pants and then absentmindedly straighten his tie. 

 

After that, he turns back from where he’d faced the door to exchange a polite goodbye with Smith, and then heads for the exit without worry, confident that he’s escaped this encounter without having to partake in any uncomfortable conversations — at least until Smith suddenly calls out his name anyway, and he finds himself freezing with his hand on the doorknob, turning a bit to look over his shoulder at where Smith is staring at him intently from behind his desk. His face, Levi sees, is rather blank, although it’s obvious that he wants to say something else because his mouth is hanging open and his brows are drawn like he’s unsure. Stiffening, Levi feels an abrupt wave of dread go through his body at the sight, but surprisingly, Smith’s eyes just flit over him for another second or two after that, and his expression ends up relaxing, turning into something friendly and gentle as he gives Levi another smile before speaking. 

 

“I just wanted to ask...did you like the flowers?” 

 

“Oh.” Levi utters at that, knowing very well that Smith had  _ not  _ just wanted to ask him about the flowers. No, he’s sure, he’d been about to bring up something else, something  _ shitty _ , but had clearly stopped and changed his mind at the last minute. Even so, though, that’s not Levi’s problem, and he isn’t stupid enough to do anything else but go along with it when all he wants to do at that point is escape. “Yeah...they weren’t bad. I didn’t throw them in the trash this time.”

 

At that, Smith does not say anything in response. Instead, he just smiles at Levi again and then looks down at his desk, and despite the fact that he’s walking out the door at that point, he notices after turning to shut it that his expression has gone back to being pensive and honestly perhaps a bit troubled. It’s hard to tell for sure, Levi thinks, but whatever. Seeing it doesn’t really affect him and he’s already forgotten about it by the time he gets home, as he’d decided to cook himself a nice dinner before doing exactly as he had planned. After eating, in fact, he ends up relaxing in the bath for quite a while as he drinks his wine and ponders the day’s events, thinking about his conversation with Petra, the deal he’d made with Reeves, and how he’d had sex with Erwin Smith again in his office. 

 

Overall, he thinks, the day had been stressful, although oddly, he had experienced none of that while he’d been visiting Smith. No, he’d been relaxed there and is actually even more free of tension now, but as he had 48 hours ago and then once more that morning, he inevitably feels like he has to ask himself: had he made another fucking mistake? Was he just completely stupid, sleeping with Smith yet again as if he was powerless to resist even though he  _ knew  _ that he probably shouldn’t? One part of him wonders if he should start hating himself for it like he had been before — because apparently he’s weak, or some shit, for this man’s cock — but this time, another part of him honestly asks... _ why? _ Why should he despise himself, when he’d been fully aware of what he’d been doing perhaps even moreso than he had two days ago? 

 

Is there anything truly wrong with fucking the guy to blow off some steam, he thinks, as long as it remains only about that? He can still be mistrustful and even unfriendly with Smith outside of the bedroom while sleeping with him  _ in _ it at the same time, _ right?  _ He thinks he can, that he can separate sex and business, because to be honest, he likes it. To be honest, he’d had fun even if he still isn’t sure Smith  _ isn’t _ a jerk, and he doesn’t get a lot of that when he barely has a life outside of work, where he, of course, spends all of his time trying to please other people before going home afterward to mope and lament about his life. What’s wrong with allowing himself a little distraction, especially one that makes him feel so good? Obviously, he knows the reasons why this might not be the best distraction to have — Smith is competition, his mother hates him, he’s still possibly a liar, and Levi is probably in some way betraying the family business — but...well, sitting there in the bath, soaking in the water, and recalling the two amazing orgasms he’d had that week because of Smith, he decides that he just no longer has it in him to care. 

 

No, he thinks, Petra can give him all the shit she wants about it when she finds out, but he refuses to feel guilty, or to question himself again whether its right or wrong when really, it’s no one’s goddamn business who he’s fucking anyway. Of course, she would only hassle him about how he can’t seem to make up his mind about what he wants and not about any potential risks to the company, but his point still stands, because even if he hooked up with Smith a dozen more times, again and again and again and again, it wouldn’t fucking matter as long as it didn’t get in the way of his job — although, he’s probably getting ahead of himself with that one because it’s not like this is a  _ thing _ just yet, or whatever. What if it became one? What if they kept seeing each other like this, but only for sex and very pleasurable stress relief? Would he have a problem with that?

 

At that point, despite how he had started out vehemently hating Smith after their first encounter, Levi now finds that no, he doesn’t mind the thought, and actually realizes that it makes him feel just a little bit excited. He’s never actually had a...a fuck buddy before, or whatever, especially not one as tall and good looking as Smith definitely is, and because of that, because, he supposes, it would be something new, his enthusiasm ends up staying with him once he gets to the office the next morning — after a very restful, complete night of sleep — along with his resolve to do what he fucking wants, for once, where he discovers that he might not be getting as ahead of himself as he might have previously assumed. That’s because, as he probably should have imagined to be a possibility, he walks in and finds himself face to face with yet another  _ massive _ , clearly expensive bouquet of flowers. 

 

This time, he sees, there are dozens and dozens of pink roses instead of red, and although Petra has intercepted them as per usual, all she does right then is shake her head at him and slap the card against his chest as she walks by. Levi catches it, still completely shameless unlike before, and glances down, honestly finding that he has to bite back a smile when he reads the words: _ ‘Levi, it was nice seeing you yesterday. I hope you like pink.’ _

 

He could get used to this shit, he thinks then. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> comments and kudos always appreciated, thank you for reading <3

**Author's Note:**

> All comments and kudos appreciated, thank you <3


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